URA Member Jan Zientek Featured in NY Times

From left, Thurston Mangrum, Patrick Corcoran, Jan Zientek and Reginald Mourning at the Veterans Affairs Medical Center in East Orange, N.J. Mr. Zientek has been advising the men on working in the hospital's garden.
By PETER APPLEBOME
Published: November 29, 2009
EAST ORANGE, N.J.

After War, Finding Peace and Calm in a Garden
[...]
It began with Jan Zientek, who specializes in urban gardening with the Rutgers Cooperative Extension in Roseland, and Thurston Mangrum, a 70-year-old Air Force veteran, who was in a substance abuse treatment program at the medical center.

Five years ago, Mr. Mangrum took a course that Mr. Zientek taught to residents of the Newark Housing Authority and later joined its master gardener program.

Mr. Mangrum figured, even with severe limitations of space, why not do something similar at the medical center? The veterans did some landscaping and ground work and then began tilling 20-by-50-foot plots between the buildings that had been converted from grass to raised vegetable beds.

This summer, veterans harvested more than 1,000 pounds of produce, which was given to other patients at the center and also used at the Foxhole Cafe at the veterans’ medical center in Lyons. Using hoop houses covered by plastic tarp, they grow crops like kale and collard greens well into the winter. There will be more crops next year, with thoughts of perhaps finding ways to sell them at farmers’ markets.

Read the full article at http://www.nytimes.com/2009/11/30/nyregion/30towns.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=rutgers%20urban%20gardening%20jan&st=cse