Nearly a dozen Key Bank volunteers helped clear and plant raised beds at the Mountain View Community Center Wednesday, seeding flowers and vegetables alongside members of the neighborhood Boys & Girls Club.

Besides planting flowers in the raised beds, the volunteers helped club members cut plastic soda bottles into makeshift pots and plant their own seeds in the club’s sun-filled art room. There were bright orange marigolds, pink geraniums and other assorted flowers.

But it was the vegetables that make up the real heart of the gardening effort, Boys & Girls Club staff said.

Key Bank volunteers — participating in the bank’s annual Neighbors Make the Difference Day — seeded trays of vegetables for club members to transfer into the raised beds later this summer.

Every day, upwards of 100 neighborhood kids eat a free dinner prepared by Children’s Lunchbox volunteers in the community center kitchen. The vegetables planted Wednesday will go directly from the garden to the dinner plate, staff said.