The second summer of the Mathews Boys and Girls Club’s healthy eating garden project ended with a bountiful harvest of carrots, beans, potatoes, and onions, and was celebrated with a feast of—what else?—soup.

Club members also cooked the soup in the club’s newly-installed kitchen, made possible by the Rotary Club of Mathews through a $2,200 Rotary District Grant.

Rotary members David Fitch and Patsy Hemp have guided the garden project since spring of 2013. Fitch showed members of the Boys and Girls Club how to build raised beds, while Hemp taught them all about the food they would be growing—how they might be eating the flower of one plant or the stem or leaves or roots of another. They planted seeds inside, and after the danger of frost had passed, they transferred their seedlings to the garden.

Over the past two summers, club members worked together to weed, water and maintain the garden using organic principles. As vegetables became ripe for harvest,...