Natanni Inc. will sponsor a gardening program for children and families in Monessen.
The goals of the Mon Valley Organic Produce Initiative are to teach young people self-sufficiency and to provide organic healthful food alternatives to the public.
In addition, the program will benefit shut-ins and those who are sick or disabled through the monthly or weekly home delivery of organic produce.
“We intend to be hands on with the children throughout the course of the project,” Natanni said in a statement.
The organizers said they do not intend to benefit financially through the project.
Natanni will allow children in the program to operate in the fashion of a farmers market and lemonade stand.
“The idea is to take away the idea that selling drugs is the only option they have,” Natanni said in the statement.
The organization said it has received permission from city officials to use two vacant lots on Clarendon Avenue and Chestnut Street to implement the project.
Combined, the lots, owned by the Redevelopment Authority of Monessen, comprise 7,510 square feet.
Natanni wants to eventually develop a youth center on one of the lots. In the long term, it hopes to lease or purchase the property.
The organization is seeking donations of chain-link fencing, gloves, shovels, hoes, seasonal flowers for landscaping, hand garden tools, vegetable plants, a tractor-tiller, soil, fertilizer, gardening pamphlets and brochures, black garden plastic; mushroom compost, water buffaloes, bottled water, a shed and barbed wire for security purposes.
The organization will consider using space on the fence for advertising.
The Natanni project is being led by Ronald D. Harrison II, chief operating officer and head cultivator, and Tiffany A. Harrison, chief executive officer.
For more information about the project, call 724-331-6375.
