JAY — Trevor Doiron took out a flat, electronic kitchen scale Tuesday afternoon and placed it on the ground to weigh the first harvest of the Tri-Town Community Garden.

He placed one cucumber at a time on it.

The 14-year-old from Jay, along with fellow students and staff at the Spruce Mountain Middle School, family and community members have pitched in to create and tend a garden started from scratch.

As he read the weight of each item on the scale, his sister, Mallory, 12, recorded the information on a slip of paper. It turned out there were 2½ pounds of cucumbers and about 3 pounds of green beans.

The Doirons and their grandmother Pat Doiron plucked the first harvest Tuesday.

The project began this past winter and will continue into the new school year, if the produce holds out.

Trevor developed the idea as a seventh-grader to create a garden to feed others. He realized that it cost more to eat healthy food than to eat processed or junk food. He wanted to do his part and help prevent child obesity.

He drew up a chart, gathered information, sought funding in February and approval with guidance from staff and family. He planned to seek volunteers to help him.

It was decided the bounty would be donated to the Tri-Town Ministerial Food Cupboard that serves Jay, Livermore and Livermore Falls.

Each time the vegetables are weighed the amounts will be reported to Maine Harvest for Hunger, a program by the University of Maine Cooperative Extension, Trevor said.

The children started most of the plants as seeds and planted them in the spring in four raised-bed gardens on the side of the school facing Route 4.

There are 61 tomato plants, 36 cucumber and 30 green bean plants, and a couple hundred carrot seeds in the beds, he said.

He organized a schedule that has volunteers checking and watering plants every day. There is also a harvest each week.

Trevor thought when he started, the project would be easy. He now knows that there is a lot of hard work from start to finish. He also learned the community is there to help when needed.

“I’ve learned you need to be really organized when you do this type of project,” he said. “I just hope it helps a lot of people. We live in a small community and you never really think that people may not be able to afford to go to a grocery store every week and have to use the food bank.”

dperry@sunjournal.com

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