Pandemic Shows Community Garden's Importance

BREWSTER, NY — The volunteers at the Garden Around the Corner, on Main Street in Brewster, believe that community gardens are more important than ever. They're looking for people to join them.

"Our community's “new normal” of social distancing, shuttered businesses, lost wages, and closed schools have led to more local families facing hunger," said the organizers at the Town of Southeast Cultural Arts Coalition. "This is why this year, more than ever, the Garden Around the Corner is deeply committed to growing vegetables for Putnam County Action Partnership and partnering with Cornell Cooperative Extension teaching others how to grow and eat healthily."

The garden is planted, watered and picked by a host of volunteers. Reach out to info@culturalartsco.com with the title "Garden" if you would like to be part of the project.

Effective immediately garden managers are implementing these practices for any garden volunteers:

• Wear a face mask at all times in the garden
• Do not visit the garden if you feeling ill, showing signs of illness or have had contact with someone who is sick
• Do not visit the garden if you are part of any high-risk group: older adults, or people of any age with underlying medical conditions
• Wash/sanitize your hands before and after visiting the garden
• Maintain social distancing guidelines of remaining at least 6 feet apart at all times
• Limit interactions and time spent in the garden
• Bring and used their own tools
• Minimize contact with surfaces (e.g., water valves hose, doorknobs etc.)
• sanitize tools before and after garden work
• do not eat or drink in the garden

Managers will schedule work in the garden to limit the number of people there at any given time.

"As vegetable gardeners, we have tremendous biological wealth," they said. "While we may not always have cash, we have access to plants, seeds, and soil that are the foundation of life. We want to share that wealth and help our community through this time of struggle.

"We are in this together."