MOBILE, Ala. (WKRG) — A recent grant from Keep America Beautiful (KAB) is bringing fresh fruit and job skills to those near Strickland Youth Center.

Keep Mobile Beautiful (KMB) is planting more than 100 fruit-producing trees this winter at Strickland, along the Three Mile Creek greenway. Youth from the center will tend the orchard with help from KMB. The produce is to help provide healthy options for low-income and minority residents near the center.

“Trees will not only beautify the SYC campus and provide job-skills for the teens, they will help sequester levels of carbon dioxide and provide nearby residents with access to healthy food sources in their own neighborhood.”

Dianne Martin, Keep Mobile Beautiful president

The Alabama Cooperative Extension Service, Mobile Master Gardeners and Mobile Urban Growers also plan to host educational programs around the orchard for neighbors.

$5,000 from KAM and the United Parcel Service, plus another $1,000 from Alabama Power Foundation’s grassroots program is making this project possible. Keep Mobile Beautiful (KMB) is one of 12 branches to receive a grant from KAM this year.

More information on Keep Mobile Beautiful:

Keep Mobile Beautiful is a non-profit organization dedicated to keeping Mobile County clean, green and beautiful. For more information on this project and others, visit the website, click here.