IPSWICH, MASS. (WHDH) - Nearly 20,000 seedlings were destroyed at a nonprofit community farm in Ipswich Tuesday, according to the farm’s executive director.
Elizabeth Green, Executive Director of Three Sisters Garden Project, said she walked into their greenhouse on Washington Street Tuesday and saw thousands of plants destroyed. She estimates at least $10,000 worth of damage was done.
“A lot of our plants and trays were just thrown on the ground, uprooted, ripped in half. Plants roots pulled out of the soil. Just like tremendous devastation and loss,” Green said.
Green said Three Sisters farm focuses on ensuring food access across Essex County. She said the seedlings would have grown into crops and produced pounds of food for those in need in the months to come.
She said her team spent the day trying to salvage any seedlings they could.
“It’s so hard, we put our heart and soul into these plants,” she said. “The cost of that seed and potting soil and the ripped trays, we can’t replace but we can start them fresh.”
While Green says they don’t know who is responsible for the damage, her team is not letting it slow them down. She said she feels that with the support of their community, their mission will grow back even stronger.
“Our mission is really clear, we think that good food, and local food, and fresh food is for everybody,” she said. “We’re going to get through this. It’s a loss and it’s a setback, but it’s not over.”
Green said they have not filed a police report, in hopes the person or people responsible for the destruction will come forward.
For more information, you can visit the Three Sisters website here.
To donate to help Three Sisters rebuild, you can visit here.
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