Philadelphia Boy Scout plants vegetables for those in need during pandemic

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- Sixteen-year-old Dayvion Young has spent time during this pandemic growing vegetables in a community garden in the West Oak Lane section of Philadelphia.

The Boy Scout with Troop 201 planted everything from tomatoes to eggplant.

"We fix them up and take all the weeds out. We just cultivate it basically and take what needs to be done and harvest it," Young said.

His scoutmaster, Rodney Keitt, came up with the idea to give Young and the other Scouts a new life skill.

"In the Boy Scouts, we try to teach these young men to be responsible citizens as they grow up. With COVID-19 and all the problems that it's brought on us, especially with everybody being quarantined, we had to be a little creative," Keitt told Action News.

Young is harvesting his crops and giving them away to food pantries, neighbors in need, and members of Cedar Park Presbyterian Church where the Scouts hold their meetings and the garden is located.

"I enjoy just seeing what grows cause I am not the biggest vegetable person, and so eating them is not my forte. But I just planted this (tomato plant) like two to three months ago and seeing it is as big as me is something really great to see," Young said.

"We were able to come outside, keep social distancing, do something to help out in the community, and that's basically what scouting is all about," Keitt added.