We are so blessed to have people who love to work with nature to create wonderful vegetable gardens. Residents grow a variety of vegetables - from tomatoes in window containers, to peppers and zucchini in backyard gardens, to pumpkins, lettuce, eggplant, etc., in larger plots of land or on farms.

Lorraine Faccenda and Rob Williams, both committee members of Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative in 2017, are very interested in gardening and giving back to the community. This article features two Whitehall gardens that people love working in and who are donating all of their vegetables.

The garden at Lafarge - The employees of Lafarge North America at 5160 Main St., Cementon, planted and cultivate a variety of vegetables. In 2017, they donated more than 800 pounds of vegetables to Whitehall Food Pantry. Faccenda, plant manager, encourages other businesses and faith-based organizations to start a garden to share. The employees have gardened at the plant every year since.

“We have a great garden going this year! We doubled the size of the garden,” Faccenda said.

This is a list of what the employees have planted in 2020: green cabbage, red cabbage, Brussels sprouts, broccoli, cauliflower, tomatoes, green beans, peppers, zucchini, yellow squash and cucumber. Lafarge will be giving the vegetables to Whitehall Food Pantry.

Mickley-Prydun Farm - In 2017, Williams tried to create a garden at the farm and ran into many obstacles, such as rocky soil, no easy water access to feed the plants and a lack of volunteers to help him. No further gardening occurred.

In March 2020, Anne Chickilly and Erik Segan, of Hokendauqua, approached Whitehall Township Board of Commissioners member Jeff Warren, who is spearheading preservation efforts at the historic farm, about the possibility of planting a community garden. Warren helped facilitate planning and approval with consent of Whitehall Township Mayor Michael Harakal Jr.

In mid-April, local farmer John Weinhofer Jr. turned the soil with his tractor, and Chickilly, Segan and family members established the garden, which is now an artful source of fresh produce benefiting Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative.

Since the garden has been established, others have expressed interest in the gardening and preservation efforts at the Mickley-Prydun Farm. The goal is to expand the garden next year and apply for grants to preserve the property.

The 12-acre farmette, located at 3540 Ruch St. and along the Ironton Rail Trail, was acquired by Whitehall Township for open space and historic preservation. The farm, dating back to 1761, was the homestead of John Jacob Mickley Sr. and family. In September 1777, John Jacob and his 11-year-old son John Jr., under cover of darkness, hauled the Liberty Bell from Independence Hall in Philadelphia through British lines to the Lehigh Valley, with its ultimate hiding spot at the Zion’s Reformed United Church of Christ in Allentown.

If you have a backyard garden and have an abundance of vegetables, please share your fortune with your neighbors, family and friends who can use fresh produce. Please show them how to prepare zucchini and acorn squash.

This week’s Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative’s food needs include 15-ounce canned pasta (Chef Boyardee, Spaghetti O’s, etc.), large boxes and individual boxes of cereal, applesauce cups and individual peanut butter or cheese snack crackers.

Please check out our new website, whitehallcoplayhungerinitiative.org.

A big thank you goes to all of you for your hard work on the gardens and for everyone’s generosity in helping our communities.