Caledonia Food Shelf Garden Box Project, Mayville Blue Ribbon Strivers 4-H Club Project

The Mayville Blue Ribbon Strivers 4-H Club in Caledonia is only one of two 4-H clubs in the state of Minnesota to be awarded the Community Youth Leadership Award.

The award stems from the group’s hard work on four garden boxes outside the Houston County Food Shelf, providing fresh produce to those using the food pantry.

The 4-H club donated more than 270 pounds of produce like lettuce, onions and radishes last year.

The success of the four garden boxes prompted the group to build four more this year.

“I like building the boxes because we help people that don’t have a lot of food,” member Eric Mauss said. “My favorite part is probably using the drills to put the boxes together.”

The Blue Ribbon Strivers will now have eight garden boxes outside the Houston County Food Shelf, with 4-H members and their families planting, watering and harvesting the food over the course of the next six months.