Eagle Scout and his team make vital improvements to community garden

Hardyston Township owns a garden that was in need of refurbishment. Enter Ken Coffaro, 15, to the rescue.

Ken and his team of volunteers took on the job of building new gates, fixing fencing, weeding, mulching, planting of vegetables, and maintaining four garden boxes.

Ken received his Eagle Scout Award from the Boy Scouts of America on Jan. 28 for his team’s work bringing the garden up to snuff. He is a student at Wallkill Valley Regional High School and a member of Troop 187 and Venturing Crew 001 in Hamburg, which is sponsored by The Hamburg Fire Department. He is the son of Jim (Eagle Scout 1983) and Marjorie Coffaro of Hardyston.

He started his Eagle project in May 2020 and completed the project in October under the supervision of advisors James Hermes and George Lippencott of Sussex County. The project, titled The Hardyston Vegetable Co-op, took 390 hours to complete with the help of scouts and leaders from Troop 187.

The vegetables harvested from the Hardyston garden are donated to the food pantry in Franklin. The garden’s improvements came at a perfect time: many people struggling through the Covid pandemic depend on the garden as a prime source of fresh vegetables.

After the project was completed, the garden was turned over to Troop 187 to maintain and grow vegetables to donate each year.