Growing tomatoes and tending a flower garden may seem like just a hobby. But as Lizzy Fox and Maggie Gibson dig, plant, weed and harvest all summer, they hope to not only produce fresh vegetables, but to beautify their Green Island neighborhood as well.
The Green Island Gardens project across the street from Pernet Family Health is transforming a lump of ground into an oasis of different vegetables.
“Gardening is a great way to commune with nature,” says Gibson. Now that I see how this project is affecting others, it makes we want to contribute more to the process.”
She and Fox are summer interns at Pernet Family Health and have taken on the project of working the land across the street from the center. Pernet is a home health and social services agency that serves low-income families in the Worcester area.
All of the produce from the garden is being used to serve families connected with Pernet Family Health. 
“It’s going to be amazing to see this project complete,” she says. “By trying to take care of our resources, it gives youth the opportunity to have a voice and make changes.”
Recognizing these changes, Camrin Perkins, Dante Dimery, Elenna Williams and Ebony Day are among the local youth ages 14 to 19 that Fox and Gibson have selected to help with the project.
Since the organization’s establishment in 1968, Pernet Family Health has worked to educate, equip and inspire more successful families.
The youth in the project are part of the “Green Jobs Movement,” designed to reduce the carbon footprint and teach young folks how to work with the environment.
“Being trained in environmental skills is really good for our youth. Not only will their impact reach out to this city, but other cities across Massachusetts as well,” says Gibson. “This project will enrich people’s lives and it points the way for kids to exercise the power and option to make a difference in the community,” says Fox. “The connection between the choices we make every day and what’s happening in the world is really empowering for them.”
But for Fox and Gibson, the garden is just a sweet reward for a successful partnership — working with each other and the Pernet family.
“The neighborhood is watching out because they see this nourishment as a sacred place,” Fox says. o
