FERNDALE, Wash. -- Healthy food can be hard to come by when you're on a tight budget, but high school students in Whatcom County are proving a piece of land and relying on teamwork to help local families.
Students are growing and delivering dozens of pounds of fresh, organic food to the food bank from a piece of land just outside Custer. The group includes nine students from Ferndale High School and one from Lynden High School.
They've been busy weeding and seeding this spring.
"It's a lot of volunteer work, and we're really happy to do this," explained Ferndale student Ryan England.
The students farm lettuce, onions, tomatoes, corn -- whatever's in season that will help Whatcom County families put a healthy meal on the table. The teens' last harvest brought in more than 40 pounds of red romaine and spinach, which benefited Ferndale Food Bank clients like Sylvia Moreno.
"It's really nice to know that we have the youngsters stepping up early," said Moreno
Students say they've gained a lot from the experience.
"When we took our first harvest to the food bank, it was neat to be able to see people," said Ferndale student Elizabeth Hand. "They were really grateful to have that there."
The food bank says 38 percent of its clients are children and 15 percent are senior citizens.
"Half of our clients represent the most vulnerable populations in our community," explained Ferndale Food Bank director Suzanne Nevan.
That's what motivates the students, who are members of the Future Farmers of America. They're learning agriculture and providing a community service. The idea is to expand the efforts to do even more good and inspire others to make use of free land and spare time.
"That is my hope and prayer that this story creates ... some momentum so that folks [who] live in rural communities all across the state can say hey I can do this," said Nevan.
The project is completely self-funded. For more information, click here.
