A mechanic turned eleven junk-filled plots into a farm that gives every pumpkin away — and in York, a spare room that has taken in five young people

Charlie Mantenuto's farm sits behind a row of houses on Mt. Walley Road in Waltham, Massachusetts. Until he bought it in 2020, the ground was eleven house plots filled with scrap metal, overgrown vines and a collapsing barn. 1

Mantenuto is a former mechanic. He spent seven months clearing the junk and levelling the soil into two planting fields. 1 He learned the work on his grandparents' 65-acre farm, and now farms these five acres for the pleasure of it. 1 Every crop goes to somebody else.

This year the fields carry zucchini, eggplant, peppers, tomatoes, corn, squash and pumpkins. 1 Three hundred pumpkins have come off the lower field so far, with about 600 more still to pick, and all 900 are going to three local elementary schools. 1 The rest of the crop goes to the Middlesex Human Service Agency, a local shelter and food pantry. 1

MacArthur Elementary School has taken more than a hundred of those pumpkins for its Trunk or Treat for two years running, and this year's is on 23 October. 1 "I just appreciate Charlie's generosity," said the school's parent-teacher organisation president, Joe LaFauci. "Seeing what he's able to do with that land and giving back to the city is something I wish more people did." 1

Tony Moor arrived at the farm in its early days through a work-release programme, and now recruits most of the crew. 1 He has found about a dozen volunteers at the YMCA and around his own neighbourhood. 1 "I love the idea of just giving back – the work, getting in touch with the soil," he said. 1

Cheryl Marcou, a Waltham resident of 32 years, has volunteered for five of them, and cooks her share of the produce for the Community Day Center, a day shelter. 1 Andrea Santarlasci set out the reason plainly. "People are getting pinched harder and harder," she said. "It really is important for community to help community here, and that's really the heart of what we're doing." 1

The five acres are the last piece of a 160-acre holding that Harvard College bought in 1738. 1 Paths cut by stagecoaches on Boston's Old Post Road run through the woods nearby, marked by the stone walls that once lined them. 1 "To me, it's sacred ground," Mantenuto said. "It should never be built on." 1

The city cleared ground close by for a Waltham High School athletic field, then stopped when it found the land too rocky, leaving banks of rock and dirt that still cover a quarter of the farm. 1

Charlie Mantenuto gives away a field. In York, Mike and Beth Edwards give away a bedroom.

The couple, both in their 30s, live in a three-bedroom house with their dog, Lilah. 2 Four years ago they joined SASH, a York charity that finds rooms for people aged 16 to 25, and Ava, 22, is their fifth guest. 2

Ava came to them after a relationship breakdown left her homeless and in hostels. 2 "I felt like I was lost in the system — you feel like you don't have someone to talk to," she said. 2

SASH works with 19 host families, matching each young person to a household for an emergency night or a longer stay. 2 A "match meeting" happens before anyone moves in, and Beth says that is what makes the arrangement workable. 2 "It's nerve-wracking at first because you worry about the unknown," she said. "But with the 'match meeting' happening first, you know who they are, so they're not a complete stranger." 2

She describes hosting as "having a best friend and a roommate all at the same time". Ava eats with them, joins them for Sunday dinner, watches television with them. 2 There is friction as well: late arrivals, forgotten keys, loud phone calls. 2 SASH pays the household £130 a week in expenses, and the Edwardses have registered their second spare room for whoever comes next. 2

They teach what each guest asks to learn — how to budget, write a CV, cook — and a caseworker stays involved throughout. Every placement is reviewed after six weeks. 2

Beth measures the two months by the change in her. "I remember the first day I met Ava, and she's come on so much and she's so strong, it's really good to see that," she said. 2 Ava is blunter about it. "It makes me too sad to think about where I would be, if I'm honest, but I'm here now, I think that's the main thing and it's because of what everyone here has done for me," she said. 2

SASH's placement manager, Nick Tilney, says the aim is to keep young people out of a homelessness cycle, and the charity receives some council funding while depending heavily on fundraising. 2 Centrepoint estimates that almost 124,000 young people will be at risk of homelessness, or experience it, this year. 2

Both halves have a way to join in this week. On Thursday, between 3.30pm and 5.30pm, Mantenuto and Pizzi Farm hold a drive-through at 495 Lincoln Street, where any Waltham family can collect two free pumpkins without leaving the car. 3 SASH takes on new hosts through its own site. 4

What stays with me is how little either arrangement needs: five acres, one bedroom, and two households that decided to share them.