Joseph Marlin of Plant a Row Lehigh Valley
After graduating from college, Joseph Marlin was looking for a way to get involved with helping others. “A friend asked me, ‘What is something the world would be less beautiful without?’ and I immediately thought of gardening,” he says. “I am most at peace when I am outside, creating beauty with nature.” That’s when Marlin found Plant a Row, a national gardening project that helps feed the hungry. Plant a Row Lehigh Valley was launched in 2016 as a chapter of the national Plant a Row for the Hungry program, serving Lehigh and Northampton counties. This program is run by local gardeners to help benefit those in the Lehigh Valley who are in need of a meal. “Since we started two years ago, gardeners from Easton in the east to Fogelsville in the west, and New Tripoli in the north to Coopersburg in the south, have donated over 8,000 pounds of fresh vegetables and fruits to the hungry,” Marlin says. These donations have benefited food banks, meal centers and homeless shelters in Allentown, Easton, Bethlehem and across the Valley.
