BARNEGAT – After more than a couple of years of discussion, Meadowedge Park is showing new life with the creation of Barnegat’s first community garden.
The project cultivates much more than a garden variety of blooms and produce – the sense of community continues to grow roots.
Roberta Rapisardi, M.S.Ed., Community Prevention Manager of the Barnegat Communities that Cares said members brought up the idea of a shared garden. The CTC group is a coalition of organizations whose collective goal is to promote positive youth development.
“CTC itself is not running the community garden,” said Rapisardi. “We did help it get its start by first finding a space.”
Rapisardi reached out to Deputy Mayor Al Cirulli to see if the township could offer a location. He proposed the option of a West Bay Avenue location in a more remote section of town – or Meadowedge Park. The choice became obvious.
The township’s involvement in the community garden didn’t stop there. Public works handled transporting free compost available from the county – and delivered it to the site.
Kurt Stofko, a retired Barnegat teacher, volunteered to become one of the lead organizers of the community garden. He easily recognized how collaborative efforts would plant seeds of positivity.
An organization named Starve Poverty International offered its support in teaching others. Starve Poverty’s mission focuses on helping people learn skills that will benefit them – or assist others.
The first phase of the project involved construction of the boxes. Michele Cucinotta, who works as a liaison between the school district and the community, found a few Barnegat students interested in becoming part of the community garden.
Aiden Saropoulos, age 13, and his 11-year-old brother, Noah, have fond memories of Mrs. Cucinotta from their days at the Dunfee School. They decided that anything their former school counselor recommended had to be fun.
“I really liked working with Mr. Stofko on the boxes,” Noah said. “I already learned something about building from my mom and dad but liked that we were all working together on something.”
The Barnegat Community Garden consists of eight 4’ x 8’ feet beds, all constructed by adults and students working side by side. Many of the start-up plants came from personal donations.
Barnegat resident Patty Clark Brescia set up a Facebook page for the garden to mark its progress. According to Brescia, one resident donated over 100 plants he grew from seed (tomatoes, peppers, beans). A brother and sister donated $150 worth of plants, commercial grade top soil, a hose and a sprinkler.
Others donated vegetable plants, garden beds and pollinator plants and a butterfly house for the creation of a pollinator garden. And no garden would be complete without the donation of garden whimsical items.
“A whole list of people sponsored the beds,” Rapisardi said. “The Community Garden Project is asking $100 to sponsor a half bed and $200 to sponsor a full bed. Checks can be written out to Starve Poverty and mailed to 6 Norwick Drive, Forked River, NJ 08731.”
When the garden becomes ripe for the picking, residents can just go and select fresh vegetables to bring home to their tables. Any surplus will be donated to local food banks for distribution.
