Lynn school board: Garden at Ingalls OK

LYNN – Children at Ingalls Elementary School will be back in their garden next planting season, laying rows of tomatoes, beans and plenty of other fresh vegetables, but they’ll be sharing some of the space with an 8-foot fence, a locked gate and security cameras.The School Committee voted unanimously Wednesday night to renew the Food Project’s lease for the 1-acre garden that kids, teachers and Ingalls staff call “the farm,” despite opposition from neighbors led by Marguerite Puleo and supported by former city councilor Loretta Cuffe-O’Donnell.Committee members were convinced the security measures along with additional safeguards such as an integrated outdoor pest management plan to control an infestation of rats in the neighborhood would resolve the ongoing conflict between the school and residents whose homes surround the site.”I am ecstatic,” said Ingalls Principal Kim Powers. “It’s been such an incredible program not only for the school community but the community at large. The garden lets Ingalls students help their community.”The garden, which is run by The Food Project, a Lincoln-based organization that promotes urban gardens and sustainable agriculture, raises 20,000 to 30,000 pound of fresh produce at Ingalls each year with much of it going to food pantries and other networks that feed local people in need.Before the vote, committee member Maria Carrasco stipulated that the committee must address the fence, cameras and additional lighting, all things that were promised to the neighbors two years ago.Puleo, who has kept detailed records of those unfulfilled promises, said the former managers of the garden suggested building a fence around her home on Chatham Street. But Puleo didn’t want to be surrounded by a fence, and as she pointed out, she is not the only neighbor who has had problems with the garden. She collected 78 names of abutters on a petition asking the school committee not to renew the The Food Project’s lease.”These families live here and know better than anyone else what they are suffering because of the garden,” she told the committee.Committee member Vincent Spirito wanted details about who would pay for the new security equipment for the farm. Mayor Judith Flanagan Kennedy said that when she spoke with Puleo a couple weeks back she had been authorized to put the fence, camera, locks and lights on the table. Kennedy understood that to mean that the city would be picking up the tab.And that was good news to Ingalls farm supporters who filled most of the seats in Tiger’s Den at the Lynn Tech Annex. They insisted the benefits of the garden which include providing an outdoor science classroom for Ingalls kids and dozens of summer jobs for local teens, was worth preserving. They also argued that the problems raised by Puleo were not caused by the garden.”The rat problem started a few years ago when the sewer was dug up in that neighborhood,” said Mary McGinn, an Ingalls farm supporter. “The Food Project is an incredible project for an urban area like Lynn and it has a ripple effect – all of it extremely positive.”