LEWISTON — It was not the most favorable year for gardens, but Penny Jessop made the best of it.

It might have been a little late in the season, but just last week the cucumbers were harvested. An old refrigerator rack that she had repurposed into something the plants could climb might’ve helped.

At the Trinity Jubilee Center at 247 Bates St. in Lewiston, Jessop and another volunteer led an effort this year to overhaul the center’s garden, where the kitchen can now use the fresh vegetables in daily meals. She also makes a weekly food drop from Bates College and still manages to maintain two other gardens for the Androscoggin Historical Society.

The 72-year-old retired teacher was recently named the Trinity Jubilee Center’s Volunteer of the Year.

“She is so reliable and she’s always patient and smiling,” Erin Reed, executive director of the center, said.

Every Saturday morning, Jessop makes the run for them from Bates College, bringing leftover food from the cafeteria. The amount varies week to week, but sometimes it fills the entire back of her car.

Jessop has been doing the Saturday morning pickup for a number of years. She first became involved with the center when she and her family volunteered to serve a meal at the soup kitchen during a holiday season.

“We just had so much fun,” Jessop said, and, after that, she put her name on the volunteer list.

This year, when the center put out a call for volunteers to create a vegetable garden there, she stepped up. She said the small plot next to the center is a little shady, and was a challenge due to the weather this year. But, she and another volunteer, Bill Frayer, tilled and weeded the space, planted vegetables and herbs and took turns watering and checking on it.

The pair planted mostly tomatoes, a variety of peppers, parsley and basil.

The space used to have raised beds, but Jessop decided to forego them and make a garden that is about 6 feet by 18 feet. Jessop and Frayer are also planning ahead for next year.

“I told him I had some ideas for changes for next year so we can maximize the space now that I’ve seen where the sun falls on it,” she said. “It’s all a learning curve, but it’s been fun.”

Reed said the staff loves serving fresh vegetables in soup kitchen meals, but that “no one on the staff team has a green thumb.”

“We can’t tell a weed from a seedling,” she said, adding Jessop “has done an amazing job. “Now when we get lettuce donated, we can go out and pick tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers and make a salad for our soup kitchen lunch.”

Jessop said she hopes to grow greens next year in the garden as well.

Reed added that picking up food donations is “a total behind-the-scenes volunteer task,” and something that does not always get the recognition it should.

“They don’t get the satisfaction of serving meals to people, or the camaraderie of being part of our cooking team,” she said. “But if nobody picks up the food, there’s no food to serve our guests. Quietly picking up food donations, week after week and year after year, is so humble and kind.”

Jessop, who taught first grade in West Gardiner, said she is not an expert gardener, but she is also no stranger to it. She also volunteers for the Androscoggin Historical Society, where she maintains an herb garden at the Knight House in Auburn and a pollinator garden at the West Auburn Schoolhouse.

“I think I’m busier now than I was when I was teaching,” she said. “I’m not one to be idle.”

She also maintains gardens at her home, an old farm off No Name Pond Road in Lewiston. She and her husband have lived in Lewiston for 46 years.

Jessop said that over the years, they have accumulated about 70 acres and keep it “mostly wild” to protect the pond. She said most of the streams that filter into the pond go through their property.

Asked how she finds the time to take care of all the properties, she said, “Well, I’m retired.”

She said she sets her own schedule, and while “sometimes it’s a little chaotic,” she is still able to find time for quiet walks in nature or her backyard.

Know someone with a deep well of unlimited public spirit? Someone who gives of his or her time to make their community a better place? Then nominate him or her for Kudos. Send the person’s name and the place where he or she does good deeds to reporter Andrew Rice at arice@sunjournal.com.

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