The Power of One Potato: Cultivating Lasting Community Impact
By Jackie Charron, Greenfield Cooperative Bank
EVP – Chief Banking Officer
It all started with a garden tour.
Last August, a few of us from Greenfield Cooperative Bank visited The Gray House garden in Springfield, one of the many community-rooted sites supported by Rachel’s Table of Western Massachusetts (RTWM). We’d heard about RTWM’s Growing Gardens program and their gleaning events, and we were curious—so we signed up. A week later, Tony Worden (our President & CEO), Jane Wolfe (EVP of Residential Lending), and I were out in the fields of the UMass Extension Vegetable Program, harvesting leftover potatoes alongside a cheerful crew of volunteers.
None of us had ever picked potatoes before, but we got the hang of it quickly. We swapped stories, laughed, and got our hands (and boots) plenty dirty. And by the end of the morning, we were proudly calling ourselves “gleaners.”
That day shifted something for us.
Since I was headed back to Greenfield after the glean, I was asked to deliver the potatoes to Stone Soup Café, where they’d be cooked into a meal for the community. I’d never been there before, but when I knocked on the back door, I was welcomed like an old friend. The staff gave me a tour, helped unload the produce, and shared how much the partnership with Rachel’s Table means to their mission.
That potato drop-off was just the beginning.
Since then, our team at GCB has shown up again and again—donning charming hairnets while volunteering at Stone Soup’s Pay-as-You-Can Community Soup Nights, sponsoring their 20th Harvest Supper, running food drives (collecting nearly 200 lbs of donations), and helping to promote events like the Food Bank of Western Mass’ March to End Hunger. At each turn, we’ve gotten more involved, and more inspired by the work RTWM is doing to address food insecurity through grassroots, community-based solutions.
Most recently, we took the next step: becoming the very first Tend-A-Garden Seed Sustainer Sponsor.
The Tend-A-Garden program is a brilliant extension of RTWM’s Growing Gardens initiative. It invites local businesses to form lasting partnerships with individual garden sites—providing not just funding, but real presence, relationship, and creativity.
Through our sponsorship, we’re supporting the garden at the Boys & Girls Club of Chicopee. That means helping to fund soil, infrastructure, and educational resources. But it also means showing up in other ways—like offering financial literacy workshops for Club members, collecting garden supplies, or just lending an extra hand during planting season. Our support also helps pay stipends for peer mentors, ensuring that young people and program alumni can share their growing expertise with others.
It’s not a cookie-cutter model. Every Tend-A-Garden partnership is built around the strengths, values, and capacity of the sponsor and the needs of the garden site. For us at GCB, it’s been an opportunity to blend our passion for financial education and community building with hands-in-the-soil involvement.
And let me tell you—it’s one of the most rewarding things we’ve done.
In just one year, we’ve gone from curious visitors to committed partners. From our first potato harvest to a sponsorship that’s growing leadership, access, and joy in Chicopee, this journey has reminded us what’s possible when businesses say yes to deep, local engagement.
So here’s my message to other banks, companies, and community organizations: Join us.
If you’re looking for a meaningful way to support food access, hands-on education, youth leadership, or community wellness—Tend-A-Garden is it. Rachel’s Table makes it easy to get involved in ways that align with your mission, your people, and your resources. You don’t have to be an expert gardener. You just have to be willing to grow something together.
Like the classic fable, sometimes all it takes is one simple ingredient to get the soup pot simmering. Our first potato was the stone. It was more than a harvest—it was an invitation. Each step since has added something new to the pot: care, connection, and a shared commitment to this work.
Let’s keep it simmering, together.
