Lynn’s Ford School goes green

LYNN – Construction of a brand new community garden on the grounds of the Ford Elementary School on Hollingsworth Street is already starting to pique the interest of those in the neighborhood.Once nothing more than fenced in concrete in the front of a school, residents find themselves pausing as they stroll past high school students and neighborhood volunteers digging and watering what are now three twisting, abstract garden structures, bringing life to the area’s rigid urban landscape.The new farmland, along with adjacent benches and the skeletons of a future green house and trellis are the center of a new “International Children’s Garden,” designed to provide a multitude of resources to the struggling neighborhood.While most passersby have yet to stop and inquire into the activity, organizers are hoping that eventually the garden can become a place where members of the diverse community can congregate and participate, restoring the Highlands to the lively and friendly community it once was.David Gass of the Highlands Coalition says that crime problems combined with a largely immigrant population tend to keep most in the community locked in their homes. He is hoping that a community garden will give neighbors something to take pride in and allow for immigrants to share their culture with others and feel more comfortable in their new country.”Hopefully this will generate interest and get people to look for solutions out of the house instead of just locking their doors,” Gass said. “We want the community to come together. We hope to start signing people up from the neighborhood, and adding some international crops that they loved back home.”Similar to a garden run by the Food Project at the Ingalls Elementary School, Gass is hoping that the crops grown at the Ford can become a part of a local farmer’s market held at the school, creating a central meeting place for those in the neighborhood.”The Food Project is advising us because they have had success doing this sort of thing. I think a farmer’s market can help bring people out, especially some of the elderly in the neighborhood who can’t get to Central Square,” he said.Local resident and Vice President of the Garden Association Wendy Joseph says the garden is a much-needed addition the area.”It is wonderful to have an excuse to get out of our homes,” she said. “We are trying to get more people in, but it is hard because so many people are working two jobs now. It will help when the farmer’s market starts and maybe even if we have some free veggies to give them it will bring them out.”In addition to community involvement, the garden will also benefit the school. Students will learn math, science, sociology and botany, as a classroom field trip is now no further than a walk out the front door.With obesity becoming a huge problem everywhere, especially in urban and low-income areas, the garden can also provide nutrition education and support for families with children.Gass said he has applied for a grant from the Mass Medical Society that will help the garden become part of a health plan for youths and teens to show that the garden cannot stay healthy on junk food, and neither can they.The idea for the garden came last summer when volunteers and members of the Highlands Coalition used money granted by the Department of Conservation and Recreation (DCR) to plant 58 trees along Green Street. Members of the coalition then sought to beautify, and attempt to unify the neighborhood further with a community garden.Construction began in front of the Ford School in May as volunteers from the Lynn Tech plumbing shop began jack hammering away at the concrete surface.They helped to groove piping used to construct benches and supports for a trellis that will provide shade.The gardens themselves sit atop the concrete, and are constructed for aesthetics as much as they are practical use.”We hired an architect and she came and designed the whole thing. We decided to go with a serpentine look to