The Coachella Valley Rescue Mission will soon have access to a steady source of fresh fruits and vegetables — harvested from its own backyard garden — thanks to the work of the San Gorgonio Council Girl Scout Troop 1650.

The 17-member troop — made up mostly of local seventh- and eighth- graders, many of whom have been in the troop since they were in second grade — designed, dug, built and planted a “Harvest for Health Garden” to benefit the clients at the Indio-based rescue mission.

“One day we were here and we were volunteering in the kitchen and we saw a lot of the stuff coming in wasn’t good quality … old stuff that wasn’t able to be sold in grocery stores, so we thought we’d build a sustainable garden to help the mission,” eighth-grader Emma Jackson said while she and other troop members walked through the garden on Thursday.

Rows of zucchini, peppers, tomatoes and other vegetables are in bloom in the six large planter boxes constructed by the troop. A small grape vineyard and a row of citrus trees were planted around the perimeter of the garden.

“Planting was really fun,” said Julia Way, 13. “It took a long time, it took a lot of effort and teamwork, but it was really fun … we got a lot of help from Burrtec, we got $2,500 from CWA — California Women for Agriculture — to help us build this garden.”

Julia said the produce should be ripe for the picking in a couple of months….

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