Denise Carpon wants her community to go green and help support its food pantry with fresh produce.

The Plum resident proposed creating a vegetable garden near the football fields far into Plum Creek Park.

“It’s one way of bringing the community together,” she told council at Monday night’s workshop meeting. “It’s one way of giving back to the elderly.”

The goal is to have residents, Girl Scouts, Boy Scouts and other organizations volunteer for the project.

Carpon referenced the Penn Hills Community Garden several times as part of her vision for the borough, and said she welcomes any help she can get.

The Penn Hills garden has more than 100 plots, or raised beds at a cost of $25 each. It produced about 1,500 pounds of produce the past year or so. More information about that effort is available at pennhillsgarden.org.

Carpon said she does not think Plum needs the raised beds or to charge a fee to use the garden.

The Plum Creek Park location is not an official site for the garden, yet.

Council President Dave Odom said administration will check on the logistics of having a community garden and could find suitable locations. Other council members lent their support to the idea.

“I think it’s a wonderful idea, knowing how much food banks need fresh vegetables and fresh food like that,” Councilman Ryan Delaney said. “I think spacing is going to be a big issue, trying to find out where to put it. … It’s going to have to be volunteer-driven. It’s going to have to be the people doing it. The borough can come in and help out a little bit. I think the interest is out there and think we can find enough people to make it happen.”

People who want to help with the proposed Plum garden can contact Carpon at 412-795-7337.

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