To the editor:
On Saturday, January 10, Lee held its first Giving Tree Drop-Off Event. It was a big success—collecting almost 50 Christmas trees and other holiday greens and multiple boxes of food donations and $1,700 for the Lee Food Pantry, which serves residents from several communities in the area. The event was held at Meadow Farm in Lee, which includes industrial composting/mulch operations. The holiday greens will be processed into mulch, which will eventually enrich the soil where it is used.
For several years, one of the event’s sponsoring entities, the Lee Greener Gateway Committee, collaborated with the Lee Lions Club to collect holiday greens and take them to a local farm for the goats. That process became too much for the farmer, so our committee had to find another natural, productive option for used holiday greens. The first choice was Meadow Farm, whose owner, Tom Touponce, came up with the idea of having a drop-off event with food and the opportunity to donate to the local food pantry.
Turning the idea into reality involved a close collaboration among Meadow Farm, the Greener Gateway Committee, and the local chapter of the Society for the Preservation and Appreciation of Antique Motor Fire Apparatus in America (SPAAMFAA). We publicized the event widely in local media, at locations selling Christmas trees, and multiple spots in Lee.
Everyone, including longtime Food Pantry Director Susan Gore, was pleased with the event, saying the results were worth the effort. We hope future annual Giving Tree Drop-Off Events will be at least as successful as this year’s, marking an
Earth-friendly and generous community closing of the year-end holiday season.
Peter Hofman
Chair of the Lee Greener Gateway Committee
Lee
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