PITTSTON – City leaders and local organizers celebrated the opening of the new Pittston City Community Garden with a ribbon-cutting ceremony Monday.
The garden, located just outside the Pittston Housing Authority building, will offer staple vegetables and produce while hosting educational and community programs open to all. Organizers said their yield will be available to local restaurants.
Pittston Housing Authority Deputy Director Shannon Bonacci seeded the idea for the community garden project, officials said. The Garden Goombas — a local organization that supports personal and community gardens in Northeastern Pennsylvania — worked with the city, the Pittston Housing Authority, the Pittston Area School District, and housing authority residents themselves to bring the garden to life. Pennsylvania American Water sponsored the project.
Joseph Stuppino, of the Garden Goombas, speaks in front of the Pittston Community Garden Monday, May 12, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
Dr. Frank Colella, a leader of the Garden Goombas and Pittston resident, said he wanted to create a healthy, outdoor environment that would draw different members of the city closer. He said that Pittston Area High School students donated the seeds to get the garden started.
“The big picture is getting people together (with) fresh healthy food and interaction with the community,” Colella, 60, said.
Joseph Stuppino, another Garden Goomba, said his organization was dedicated to projects like the new garden that build community ties. He said he was proud of how the project involved elderly residents and people living nearby in a special effort to better their community. During his speech, Stuppino drew attention to one local resident who had been working on planting a strawberry patch in the garden.
“You have people from the community putting their hands in the soil,” said Stuppino, a 42-year-old Dallas resident. “It’s everybody that directly lives here.”
Mayor Mike Lombardo said he was enthusiastic about the garden and what it could offer city residents. He said he was proud how the garden brought different public entities and local organizations together, forging solidarity for a citywide project.
“We focus a lot on redevelopment and community development and community development is really I think exemplified in a project like this,” Lombardo said. “It’s great to look at buildings and Main Street and physical things, but for me the great victories have always been those that have engaged our community.”
Vegetables grow in the Pittston Community Garden Monday, May 12, 2025. (SEAN MCKEAG / STAFF PHOTOGRAPHER)
City Business Administrator Jenna Strzelecki said she was excited to see a resource like the garden to “foster community spirit.” She said the city’s Community Garden Committee, a collection of private and public entities who helped with the project, are planning events and fundraisers to help keep the garden sustainable.
Kristen Walters, the city executive assistant and event planner for the Garden Committee, said she anticipated doing a propagation event some time around June.
The Garden Goombas have a track record in Luzerne County. They previously worked planting a community garden with King’s College and worked to donate food to the St. Vincent de Paul soup kitchen in Wilkes-Barre. The Goombas worked with Misericordia University to plant a garden for the school’s Bourger Women with Children, a program for single mothers.
For the Garden Goombas, these projects honor their roots. Stuppino said his grandfather and much of his family were from the nearby unincorporated town of Old Boston.
“Community gardens were our way of taking our master garden skill and making art around Luzerne County,” Stuppino said.
To Colella, this new project hits close to home too. He said he first developed his passion for gardening with his great-grandmother and his grandmother, who grew up living right under the former St. Rocco’s Roman Catholic Church, which now overlooks the community garden.
“It’s not two people, it’s not three people,” Colella said of those involved in the new garden. “It literally is the whole community getting together for a better cause.”