DELRAN, N.J. (KYW Newsradio) — A onetime peach farm that became a public park will be growing crops once again. Burlington County is giving a section of Laurel Run Park in Delran to the group Farmers Against Hunger.
It used to be a peach orchard, until Burlington County bought it 20 years ago to preserve it as open space, as Laurel Run Park. Now, the county is turning 4 of its 120 acres over to Farmers Against Hunger, a group that collects surplus produce from farms and distributes it to food banks.
Mary Pat Robbie, the county director of resource conservation, said the group was hampered because it didn't have a large cooler to store food.
"We had been working with them at our agricultural center down the street and it just kind of occurred to me, 'Wow! We have a chiller.'" she recalled.
That's at the old peach farm's packing house, which remained on the property. Al Murray, executive director of the New Jersey Agricultural Society, which runs Farmers Against Hunger, says it’s everything the nonprofit needs.
"We have cooler space now. We have a place that we can park our trucks. We have a beautiful packing shed now that allows us to pack the food," he said, "and of course the land that we have to be able to use that will help us fulfill our mission."
Under the deal, Farmers Against Hunger will grow crops and establish teaching gardens at the new Laurel Run Land Stewardship Center.