Plant Sale – Mother’s Day May 2023

Backstory and Success

The SIF Plant Sale Volunteer Team

Have you ever heard the famous saying that it takes a community to raise a child, well it’s the same for a plant? It also takes the efforts of an entire community to grow a plant. Our community of volunteers, around 65 volunteers who helped in growing our plants as well as organizing the sale, made this event possible. The sale was a big success, but it all started in a garage in East Brunswick. Ajit Joshi and his wife Pournima Joshi started growing these plants in early March. They filled 2,000 cups with seed and dirt, while carefully nourishing these plants for 7-8 weeks.

Germination and Growth

Taking care of so many plants is not an easy task however, so a WhatsApp group chat was created to distribute these seedlings to volunteers from middle school to high school. Each volunteer took around 20-30 plants and started taking care of these plants. Preshit Dalal, (could you please add what I should label your role as)took 40 plants home to cultivate. During this whole process, all the volunteers shared photos of their budding plants. After 6 weeks, the plants were moved to bigger cups and more dirt was added to give these plants more nutrients.

The Sale

On May 13th, the plant sale came at last. Just before the sale, all the plants were labeled and priced by the plant’s group and growth. The event was a major success, because of the help of over 40 volunteers in organizing, marketing the event, and those selling plants, with well over 2,500 plants sold. 90% of these plants were Indian vegetables, while the rest were larger plants and flowers donated by local nurseries. Anandi Nagarajan from “The Dawn to Dusk” wellbeing center greatly contributed to the event by renting their premises for our sale.

After the Sale

The customers of the sale were still reaping the yield from these plants till mid-August, almost 3 months after the sale. Some of the produce included cucumbers, eggplants, tomatoes, karela, all types of chiles, brahmakamal, bottle gourd, okra, nishi ganda, mogra, tulsi, Indian pumpkin, basil, sponge gourd, moringa, curry leaves, and watermelon just to name a few of the different flowers, herbs, and Indian vegetables available at the sale. All of these plants are still thriving in their new homes.