High School Student Uses Her Knowledge of Gardening and Nutrition to Raise Money for Northern Westchester Food Pantry
Caroline Gershman, a sophomore, honors student at Horace Greeley High School in Chappaqua, NY and an elite Westchester club soccer player will be selling potted patio tomato plants at the Sunset Market event at the Jefferson Valley Mall (located at 650 Lee Blvd, Yorktown Heights, NY) on June 27th beginning at 5:00 pm to raise money for the Mount Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry which serves 300 families per week in the northern Westchester area. For a $5 suggested donation, supporters can take home their own tomato plant that they can either plant in their backyard or transplant to a larger pot later in the summer and enjoy freshly, home-grown tomatoes right through the season.
Caroline, who has a passion for helping those in need with a focus on food insecurity, developed her idea to fundraise for the food pantry because of a recent initiative she created to teach clients served by the food pantry to feel empowered by being able to grow tomatoes in their own homes. Through a science competition at school where her team won the Bedford 2020 competition, she has become particularly interested in gardening methods as a way to grow food in areas that do not have sufficient land available to do so. Through research, Caroline found that patio tomatoes can be grown successfully in containers which is important because many of the clients of the food pantry live in apartments and do not have a plot of land to garden. She also discovered that patio tomato plants are very productive yielding up to 50 tomatoes which is about 10 pounds of fruit throughout the 8-week harvest period.
Caroline says, “Food security is so important and there are so many people in Westchester who don’t have it. I wanted to figure out a way to help the food pantry and I hope that when supporters see their own tomato plants growing over the summer, they will think of the food pantry and be reminded that we have families in our own neighborhoods who need help during all seasons of the year.”
The Mount Kisco Interfaith Food Pantry, a 501 (c)(3) non-profit, is an affiliation of faith-based congregations dedicated to providing supplemental food to underserved residents of northern Westchester. They are committed to creating a healthier and stronger community. Their volunteer efforts respect the dignity of those they serve and are an expression of the spiritual mission of their member institutions.