A student reflects on her time at GardenShare

One of the students taking part in the Community Based Learning program at SLU, reflects on here time at GardenShare...

When picking out which community service I wanted, I wasn’t sure which assignment appeared most appealing to me. There were a lot of choices that stuck out to me. However, with the little I knew about the GardenShare, I knew it would be a good fit. Throughout my high school education, community service had always been an important part of my life. Ever since middle school I have been volunteering at my local food pantry, named The Acord Food Pantry. For my Community Based Learning aspect of class, I volunteer my time at the GardenShare. The GardenShare is an organization, whose main goal is to make healthy fresh produce, more readily available to those in the St. Lawrence County.

More specifically, one of their major roles in the community is participating at the farmers market in Canton. At the farmers market, they have a tent set up where people can use their Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) and a plastic electronic benefits transfer (EBT) cards. SNAP is a federal program, formerly known as food stamps, that provides monthly benefits to eligible clients on their EBT cards. GardenShare has set up a program where SNAP clients can use their EBT SNAP card at the Canton farmers’ market in order to gain access to healthy locally produced food options. At our tent, clients can use their EBT SNAP cards and receive coins each worth one dollar. In turn, these coins can be used to purchase fresh produce at the farmers market. One of the benefits of visiting the GardenShare tent at the Canton farmer’s market is that GardenShare is currently doubling the amount of money the clients are asking for. For instance, when a customer comes up with their EBT SNAP card and asks for 10 dollars, GardenShare will only charge them 10 dollars, however the client will receive 20 dollars’ worth of tokens. With this incentive, GardenShare is hoping to encourage the EBT SNAP users to purchase fresh and local food.

My time so far at GardenShare and specifically the farmers market has been more than valuable. It is here, that I learned how prevalent poverty is in the North Country. By attending a wealthy University, where communication off campus is limited, not everyone realizes what Canton is truly like. By working with GardenShare, I now know, and have witnessed firsthand how appreciative members of the community are when college students pay attention to the town they are living in. With this newfound knowledge of the community, I am better able to interact with the customers I work with, and attempt to understand the rest of the community. I learned to understand and acknowledge that everyone’s situation is different, and that there are varying degrees of poverty. However, I also learned that being sympathetic and patient is one of the most effective ways to be respectful and enact change into the community around you.  

                                                   - Lindsay Campbell