06/23/2026
Your friendly VNA co-chair here, coming to you a little sad and disappointed. I also moonlight as the volunteer lead for the Vernon School Garden. This spring myself and our garden coordinator grew and gathered loads of donated tomato starts for the garden. Our coordinator tends to them over the summer, we share any extra with neighbors and then when school starts the kids get to learn and make pizza with them. Tomatoes are a favorite of the kids and one of just a few things designated for fall lessons.
Sadly, someone stole our tomatoes. Honestly, it’s so infuriating and baffling. They literally dug them up and took them. Who steals tomato plants?
So much work from our gardener and community volunteers goes into this garden, it’s beyond disheartening how often things are broken or stolen here.
They also stole sunflowers, something that can’t even realistically be transplanted, making it even more confusing.
I don’t imagine the person who did this will see this post, but I really just wanted to vent and hopefully raise a little awareness about our beloved garden. The garden is open and accessible and we love having it for the community. We take care of the plants all summer and share harvests - we are also happy for you to forage here when school is out as long as you leave enough for others. (And maybe pull a w**d or two 😉).
If by some miracle you have any tomatoes left that need a home, we could use some 😭.
