Raising Money for Charity with Tomatoes
By Michelle Fabio
Every summer day, eighty-year-old Sam Shapiro, former Treasurer of the state of Maine, tends to his 300 tomato plants with love, affection, and the noble intention of donating proceeds from their sales to a local cancer care center and youth club.
In his garden, Shapiro raises heirloom, Early Girl, Big Bite, and Better Boy, putting two shovelfuls of compost in each hole, he says.
When they’re good and ripe, he offers them to passersby at the end of his driveway, where he keeps a box for customers to drop their dollars—Shapiro’s tomatoes go for $2 a pound.
In 2006, Shapiro raised nearly $1,300, and this year’s proceeds will go to Maine General Medical Center’s new Harold Alfond Center for Cancer Care and the Waterville Area Boys & Girls Club at the Alfond Youth Center. Shapiro’s wife Carol is a breast cancer survivor, which in part led to Shapiro’s donation decision.
Shapiro’s idea can serve as an inspiration to us all as it’s a great way to turn our passion for tomatoes into something that benefits the greater good.
Why not section off a portion of your garden for charity?
