Stenton Family Manor celebrates nutritious summer harvest at Hope Garden

  Young farmers sell their produce at Stenton Family Manor

Stenton Family Manor, the largest Philadelphia city-owned homeless shelter, on Tuesday, August 24, 2009 celebrated its first harvest from a unique farm program for residents sponsored in partnership with Weaver’s Way Community Programs.

The quarter-acre farm, located on the Manor’s premises in Northwest Philadelphia, raised tomatoes, eggplant, potatoes, tomatillos and bell peppers among other vegetables for the Manor’s own kitchen, which feeds over 200 people 3 times each day.

The shelter houses 60 – 75 families on any given day and is open to anyone 18 years and older who has a child 18 years or younger. Of the 150 children housed in the Manor, one third are 12 or older, another third are 6 to 11 years old and the rest are 5 or under. According to Elder J. Roger Harrison, the Executive Director of the Manor, the children named the farm “The Hope Garden,” and the program provided a means for children of all ages and their family members to work together in a common project.

The original idea for the farm came last year from David Siller, Farm Educator of Weavers Way Community Programs, who was supervising another farm project at the adjacent Martin Luther King High School. At the time, the MLK farm was donating some of its harvest to the Manor, when Siller had the idea to start a farm in an overgrown lot at the Manor which was harboring groundhogs who were raiding the MLK fields. It was a win-win-win situation to clear the lot, raise food for the Manor’s kitchen and give the children an educational experience in raising their own vegetables.

The farm was started in February of 2009 and, Siller says, from the beginning the children were so enthusiastic about it that they all wanted to figure out how they could lend a hand and be part of it. During the summer, Stenton Family Manor hosted a summer camp whose activities included working with the farmers to plant, form beds, move compost and perform other gardening tasks. They also learned to make salads with the farm’s fresh ingredients. 

Enthusiasm for the farm did not wane all the way though the harvest as evidenced by the pride and excitement the children were showing at the celebration this week as they greeted guests, conducted tours, sold their crops to visitors and performed a dance to “Circle of Life” from the musical “The Lion King.” The children also manned the refreshment tables where the menu included tomatillo salsa, tomato, basil and mozzarella salad, and grilled vegetable Panini, all made with the farm’s produce.

Stenton Family Manor is operated by Mt. Airy Bethesda, Inc., a non-profit established by Bishop Ernest C. Morris, Chief Executive Officer and Founder. The farm was made possible in part by support from Rubenstein Charitable Foundation, Children Can Shape the Future, Bill Coleman Family Foundation, Weavers Way Environment Committee, and the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.