Vandals target Ipswich, Massachusetts farm growing food for people in need: "Incredibly disheartening"

Vandals targeted a non-profit farm in Ipswich, Massachusetts that grows food for people in need on the North Shore.

Hundreds of trays of plants were thrown to the ground after someone broke into the greenhouse at the Three Sisters Garden Project Monday night.

"Tuesday morning our farm crew got to work," the project's executive director Liz Green told WBZ-TV. "It was incredibly disheartening to come in and see that."

Thousands of dollars worth of seedlings were destroyed.

The community farm has a mission deeply rooted in growing and giving. But what they found was the complete opposite - several weeks of careful work was destroyed. 

"Trays all over the floor, there were plants on the ground, things uprooted, things ripped in half. We've lost plants and crops in the past to weather, to pests, to diseases, to natural disasters. But never to a person trying to do harm," said Green. 

That harm is especially painful because of who the non-profit feeds. Eighty percent of their produce goes to food insecure neighbors. 

"A lot of folks on the North Shore are really struggling to make ends meet. They can't afford good food. They can't get to markets; they can't get to CSAs. So, we really see our role as bridging that gap," Green said. 

What was trashed and trampled had the potential to grow into thousands of pounds of food. But the team wasted no time turning a new leaf. They salvaged what they could, and generous North Shore neighbors and farms nipped negativity in the bud, donating for replacement seeds, plants and trays.

As the team scrambles before their late May plant sale, they're still willing to extend an olive branch to whomever did this. 

"To replant and get folks' hands in the dirt and just engage and sort of repair and rebuild. That's what we love," Green added optimistically.

Ipswich, Massachusetts is 30 miles northeast of Boston.