From left, Francis Mancho’s father Joseph Mancho; sister Amundan; mother Maureen; Francis; and friend Dick Endis of Whitehouse Station, NJ, in front of the community garden.
Last June, Francis Mancho, a resident of Budd Lake, NJ, received a $3,000 grant from the Jenny Jones Foundation to buy two new HP Touchsmart 610 xt series computers for Matheny students to use at our Tea Time Café. The café is part of Matheny’s transitional program for young adults, which teaches students retail skills as they sell food and beverages to Matheny staff members. The computers were important because the students’ disabilities make it difficult for them to ring up sales on a cash register.
Food products have included organic produce grown by Mancho at a garden at his church in Flanders, NJ. Now Mancho and his family have gone a step further. They have donated a community garden to Matheny, creating, planning and caring for it on the Matheny grounds. The first crop should be ready soon. Francis, as a student at Mount Olive High School, had volunteered at Matheny for four years. He is now studying business at LaSalle University in Philadelphia.
What a beautiful garden it is! The students enjoyed watching the first harvest. Both students and staff learned a lot about vegetable gardening from this wonderful family. Thank you Mancho Family and the Matheny Staff.