Youth from four different congregations boarded bus No. 13 Wednesday morning and assessed the seating situation: 16 benches for 47 people meant three to a seat with no room to spare. As the bus pulled away from the convention center, Mary Jo Martin, the servant volunteer leader for the Four Seasons City Farm project congratulated the groups on squeezing together. “It’s just another way to get to know people!” she said, promising the group she’d give them popsicles at the end of the day.

Nearly filling two benches, five members of the Spring Valley Mennonite Church youth group attending the convention — including sisters Elsa and Ria Jewell from Spokane, Wash., and their father Gary Jewell (also the church pastor) — listened to the rest of the bus sing a loud rendition of “On Top of Spaghetti.”

After dropping off one youth group at the YMCA club, the remaining three continued to their destination: a one-acre city site, formerly an abandoned lot, where Four Seasons City Farm cultivates organic vegetables and flowers. The garden is one of 11 plots of land within a mile radius in the city sold to the non-profit organization for $1 a piece.

Four Seasons City Farms shares its produce in three ways: one-third goes to volunteers from the community who join together to garden, one-third is donated to soup kitchens and food pantries and one third is sold to local farmer’s markets, including a booth at North Market (located near the convention center).

The distribution of the fresh food is still “trial and error,” according to Daniel Ingwersen, one of the founders of the farm. He said the organization recently donated 300 heads of lettuce to an area soup kitchen, only to learn “that this neighborhood, for example, does not like lettuce.”

Stephanie Kane, product and marketing assistant for Four Seasons City Farm, introduced the youth groups to their service work for the day. “Since it just rained, it’s the perfect weather for weeding,” she said.

The youth split into groups of five and hovered over beds of Swiss chard, beats, kale, herbs, radishes and zucchini, yanking weeds and chatting with each other.

“We definitely can use these 30 [volunteers] for a few days,” said Ingwersen.

John Hance and Garret King, both of West Liberty, Ohio, had difference perspectives on the garden work.

Said Hance, “I live on a farm, so this is not bad at all.”

King kept on task, but found the work a bit more tedious. “[But] it’s beneficial, so I’ll do it,” he said.

In the middle of the garden, beaneath a shelter donated from Home Depot, Ingwersen sorted out 5,ooo packets of donated seeds. “We had so many, we even gave some to the city,” he said, preparing to continue the cycle of green growth.