Area Cub Scouts plant garden to feed hungry

Cub Scouts promise to help other people at all times, and that's just what a pack from Gilberts is doing by joining the Daily Herald's Giving Garden campaign.

Members of Cub Scout Pack 1047 planted their vegetable garden at the end of May, on land donated by the Fraternal Order of Eagles in Gilberts, which charters the troop.

Their plot extends 25 by 30 feet in size, and it took the Scouts - who range in age from 6 to 11 - nearly half a day to get it set up.

However, they weren't alone. Their quest to start a garden to provide fresh produce to their nearby food pantry, drew donations and help from area businesses.

The seed for their garden was planted last November, when the Scouts visited the FISH Food Pantry in Carpentersville. They arrived with canned goods collected during their own food drive, leading them to jump in and help restock their shelves.

"The boys really enjoyed it," says Jennifer Schorsch, a Cub Scout parent. "Several of our adult leaders had seen past stories about Giving Gardens through the Daily Herald, and thought it would be a great idea, since fresh produce is not received as often by the food pantries."

She added, that ever since the Dominick's Finer Foods in Carpentersville closed, the supply of produce to FISH had dropped.

The 30 or so Cub Scouts were eager to fill in the gaps.

In their garden plot, they planted tomato, pepper and zucchini plants and constructed a trellis system for cucumber plants to climb.

Just getting the land ready, however, took some help. Enter Ralph Helm, Inc., which donated a sod cutter to clear the plot, so that Eagles financial officer, Bob Sroka of Gilberts, could till the land.

"I grew up in Minneapolis and half our backyard was a vegetable garden," Sroka says. "We grew lots of vegetables and canned everything. I was glad I could pass it along."

Sroka also gave the Scouts some tips on how to keep their plants producing, including wrapping newspaper around the tomato and pepper plants to prevent worms from cutting through the vines, and using grass clippings as mulch to keep the weeds down.

Platt Hill Nursery donated money for them to purchase the vegetable plants, while the Home Depot in Carpentersville donated money for compost fertilizer and fencing to keep out the pesky rabbits.

So far, during their first month as gardeners, Scouts have watched their seedlings flower and grow, as they have weeded and tended their plants.

Now, their leaders say, they eagerly await the day they can harvest their first crop, and return to FISH, armed with nutritious fresh vegetables to share with the less fortunate.