MORRISVILLE, N.Y. — At some point, everyone falls on tough times and while that means forgoing luxuries, food is an absolute necessity. Throughout Madison County, we have plenty of examples of our communities coming together to support and donate to food pantries and programs for free meals – and often that is more than a hearty meal with programs that combine conversation and comradery while sharing a meal.
A new Seed to Supper grant program offered through CCE Madison is an opportunity to strengthen these noble efforts by not only feeding people who are enduring tough times, but by teaching them to grow the foods that help them feeding themselves. Could you benefit from this program?
CCE Madison is looking for people who are finding it a little hard to make ends meet this year and could benefit from learning how to grow their own food, saving money at the grocery store in the process.
The Seed to Supper Program originated with the Oregon Food Bank’s Learning Gardens (learning-gardens.org) and is completely free. Cooperative Extension offices take part in this program state wide but this is the first year it has been offered at CCE Madison. The program includes 6 online core classes: Planning Your Garden, Getting Started with Healthy Soil, Planting Your Garden, Caring for Your Growing Garden Part 1, Caring for Your Growing Garden Part 2 and Harvesting Your Bounty in addition to In-person work sessions at our location at 100 Eaton Street in Morrisville, and cooking demonstrations from SNAP-Ed featuring the vegetables we’ll be growing. Bring the kids! During in-person workdays, youth gardening activities will be provided through Madison County’s 4-H program!
This collaborative effort between Cornell’s Garden Based Learning program, CCE Madison, SNAP-Ed and any community partners who want to spread the word to those in need of food assistance this year, also includes a troupe of trained, Garden Educator Volunteers who will act as mentors to Participants (those wanting to learn to garden). Participants will receive, free of charge, a 98-page book: Seed to Supper: A Beginner’s Guide to Low-Cost Vegetable Gardening which includes the 6 core classes mentioned above along with recipes and lots of great information for beginning gardeners.
If you are lacking space in which to garden, don’t worry, we will be using a teaching garden behind CCE Madison in which to grow vegetables. Cornell’s Garden Based Learning program has a Veggie Variety Trials program which we are also participating in and through which we will receive free seeds and seedlings. Take home to your table what you grow! In addition, CCE Madison received a generous donation of seeds from Botanical Interests that will be used to supplement the plantings from the Veggie Variety Trials program.
If you or someone you know is interested in becoming a Participant and learning how to grow food on a budget, please contact Patty Catalano at 315-684-3001 ext. 123 to register or register online here: https://reg.cce.cornell.edu/
If you are interested in helping spread the word about this program, please contact Patty Catalano at the number and extension above to receive a packet with trifold flyers, posters and other marketing materials. Also, we will gladly accept donations of books, gardening tools and buckets to help support this program!
For more information about the Seed to Supper program please go to our website: http://madisoncountycce.org/
–Patty Catalano
Cornell Cooperative Extension Madison County
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