🌱 Growing Together: Rotary in Action for Food and the Environment
This spring, Corning Rotary members joined with neighbors, community partners, and volunteers to support two projects that reflect our club’s commitment to food security and environmental stewardship.
At the Corning Food Pantry, Rotarian Stu Sammis led the construction of a new greenhouse, now nearly complete, that will help expand access to fresh produce. Across town, a team gathered for the annual spring clean-up at the Kate Danforth Garden, refreshing this community space in preparation for a vibrant growing season.
These efforts highlight the power of Rotary collaboration — uniting hands and hearts to grow both gardens and goodwill.
The Greenhouse Project at the Corning Food Pantry
- Assembling raised beds in Greenhouse at Corning Community Food Pantry
- Simon, Dave, and Chance Bloiun
- The greenhouse is finished except for the electrification.That will be done by the end of May.
- Lettuce, beets, and carrots are planted.
- Several hundred various seed starts are growing.
- Thanks to the Bloiun men, Gridley Excavating, Presbytery of Geneva, our Club, and garden volunteers for making this possible.The greenhouse willallow us to extend the growing season to at least 10 months of the year.
Spring Cleanup at the Kate Danforth Garden in South Corning
- Assembling metal raised beds at the Kate Danforth Community Garden
- Rotarian Yumiko Akiba and Gardener Eileen Schmidlin
- An overcast and light rain sort of day but they kept dry building the bed under cover.
- 15 people from the club, Corning First Presbyterian Church, Corning Inc, and Gardeners participated.
- Refurbished 10 wooden beds, replaced 4 wooden beds with metal beds, and added two new metal beds.
- Filling the two new beds.
- Volunteers from Corning Inc.
- Ed Schmidlin refurbished an older wooden raised bed.
- This will extend the life of these beds by 3 – 4 years, hopefully.
- More metal beds built by members of First Presbyterian, Skip Moore and Ken Baer.
- Finished metal raised bed.
- This is a replacement for a rotted wooden bed.
- The wood sides were removed, then the soil walls were trimmed back, and a channel out through the middle of the bed.The metal replacement was simply dropped in place. Easy peazy, lemon squeezy.
- Members of the Presbyterian Mafia, Ann and Wyatt Smith, and Dannielle Rumsey refurbishing a bed.