Re-Entry Center Garden Project Benefits Community

SWANVILLE — Participants at the 32-bed Regional Re-entry Center, who are close to their release dates, will be spending two days a week at the Nickerson field on Swan Lake Avenue as part of a county-funded project whose goal is  to grow fresh produce for the center and for the community. In addition to benefiting the facility, the produce will be distributed at local emergency food cupboards and soup kitchens. As part of their transition program, the 18- to 25-year-old inmates will be involved in all stages of the production from weeding to shipping.

County Commissioner Bill Shorey, who is an on-site agricultural advisor, reported in the Republican Journal that there is a mile of food rows that boasts 120 feet of cucumbers, summer, and winter squash, 2,000 feet of corn, 800 feet of beans, 100 feet of tomatoes, 400 feet of potatoes, and 250 feet of beets and carrots.  Broccoli and cabbage are there but only in an amount that will be used at the Re-entry Center.  The growers have not had any difficulty with local wildlife since the acre of field is surrounded by solar-powered deer fence. Shorey hopes to have the garden expanded to include all of the field's five acres over the next couple of years of their five-year lease. Randy Doak, who rototilled the garden area, is also serving as an agricultural advisor to the young men.

Administrators at local food cupboards, agencies, or churches who would like to help distribute the produce from this project, may contact Sheriff Scott Story at 338-2040.