Cooling stations open at all six senior centers through Friday
With heat indices forecast above 105°F, every senior center is open as a cooling station from 9am, and I-RIDE is running additional trips.
Community · July 21, 2026 · 4 min read
The Della Hayden garden doubled in size, and so did the waiting list
Twenty-four new raised beds went in this spring at Hayden Village Center. Every one of them was spoken for within a fortnight.
Twenty-four new raised beds went in at the Della Hayden community garden this spring, doubling its capacity. Every bed was claimed within a fortnight, and there is now a waiting list of eleven households.
The garden sits beside the restored Della Hayden School in Franklin, a building that educated generations of Black students in Southampton County and now houses affordable apartments, a recreation program and this. Beds are worked by residents of the building and by neighbours from the surrounding blocks, which was always the point.
Produce that gardeners cannot use goes to the senior center kitchen. Last season that came to just over four hundred pounds of vegetables, most of it collards, tomatoes and okra.
If you would like a bed for next season, call 757-461-9481 and ask for Hayden Village.
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