It’s that time of year, when New York gardeners are bringing home tomato starts and other vegetables to transplant into their gardens.
This season, more than 250 underserved (and often food-insecure) Ithaca-area families once again will have the same opportunity to grow some of their own food thanks to the good will of a Cornell University horticulture research program that has grown close to 200,000 starts for them since 2014.
“We’ve been partners with the Tompkins Community Action’s (TCA) Victory Garden project,” said Neil Mattson, professor in the School of Integrative Plant Science’s (SIPS) Horticulture Section. “Our research group donates a little time and greenhouse space to grow the transplants. Then TCA does the organization to distribute them to the families who otherwise might not have the wherewithal to have a backyard garden or grow a few pots of fresh vegetables.”