Eighteen Marietta College organizations and teams joined together to give back to the community Saturday. The more than three hundred volunteers signed up, were working on twenty-two different service projects around the Pioneer City.

These Marietta College students, Marietta High school students and community members joined together to give back to the Pioneer City.

Some like Marietta College senior and computer science major, Joshua Gilbert, are breaking comfort zones.

"I'm from the suburbs back near Dayton and so this is something we really don't do. So it's an interesting experience but it's a lot of fun. A lot of hard work, it makes me appreciate farmers a lot more," he said.

Appreciating farmers and providing hope for families who will be growing vegetables on this land.

Karen Kumpf is the Executive Director of the Washington County non-profit, Harvest of Hope.

"Most of these families have eaten canned vegetables and fruits and the nutrition value is not as high as if you have something fresh and we want folks to be able to learn how to provide for themselves rather than giving them to them," she said.

So the Harvest of Hope Community Garden Program provides the education and land for families to grow their own vegetables on. It's on the corner of Sixth and Hart Streets.

"It cannot be done with just a handful of people, it takes a lot of people working together," she said.

Marietta College groups and others from the community were volunteering across the Pioneer City Saturday for Community Service Day.

Gilbert is the President of the Marietta College Chapter of the Lambda Chi Alpha Fraternity and he was volunteering with some of his fraternity brothers at the Community Garden. Other fraternity brothers were at Indian Acres Park and sororities like the Chi Omega Sorority were also volunteering at sites like the Kroger Wetlands.

"Marietta accepts us into their community so I think it's important we give something back to them," said Virginia Hynes, a Marietta College freshman and Chi Omega.