About two dozen youth turned out to help build a community garden Saturday at Saint Andrew Catholic School.

Those present formed a prayer circle as the garden, which benefits Tarrant Area Food Bank, was blessed by Father John Shanahan. at 2 p.m.

Then the work began.

Volunteers grabbed shovels, sticks, rakes and wheelbarrows to prepare for spring planting and construct a keyhole garden.

“It is so much fun,” Carol Marin, a community garden coordinator, said. “They are learning new skills, and they are working.”

The garden, Marin said, serves as a learning aid for the school, and all the food that is grown is organic.

“We’ll probably have a really big harvest in May,” she said. “The potatoes will come first.”

One group of seven freshman and sophomore volunteers said they were fulfilling a service project requirement for their confirmation and chose to work in the garden “because we get to be outside.”

Among other things, the group mixed mortar for the keyhole garden which Marin said “emphasizes maximum production of food with minimal effort and a scarcity of resources.”

Marin said after their hard work, volunteers will get to eat from the harvest.

“That’s an important key aspect,” she said.