Pitney Meadows doubles free produce program with $20K grant

Pitney Meadows Community Farm on West Avenue is doubling the size of the farm’s program that delivers free produce and cooking classes to residents of three Saratoga County apartment communities, backed by a $20,000 gift from the Business for Good Foundation. The donation was announced in late September and reported by Saratoga TODAY on October 1.

The money goes to the residential side of the farm’s Food as Medicine program, which is in its second year. Through November, residents get a weekly delivery of fresh vegetables at no cost, along with nutrition and cooking classes, according to the announcement.

What the grant pays for

The Business for Good Foundation said the foundation’s donation is meant to double the capacity of the residential program, according to Saratoga TODAY. The announcement did not say how many households the program reaches now or how many it will reach after the expansion.

Here is how the residential program works, based on the announcement:

• Residents receive weekly produce deliveries sourced from Pitney Meadows and other regional farms, free of charge.
• Deliveries come with hands-on cooking and nutrition classes, so the food arrives with ideas for using it.
• The season runs six months and ends in November 2026.
• Produce is bought from more than a dozen local farms and producers, which keeps that spending in the regional farm economy.

The three housing communities in the program are Stonequist Apartments, Riverview Apartments and Dominic Hollow Apartments. The last two are run by RISE Housing and Support Services, according to the announcement.

How the program started

The residential deliveries grew out of a clinical program. In April 2025, Spectrum News 1 reported that Pitney Meadows and Saratoga Hospital were launching a Food is Medicine effort in Saratoga County. Under that model, patients took part in weekly group medical visits that covered the nutritional value of the food in that week’s box.

The clinical side ran through the Saratoga Community Health Center, where medical director Renee Rodriguez-Goodemote told Spectrum that patients met weekly in groups to go over what was in that week’s package and why it mattered for their health. The idea is simple. A doctor can tell a patient to eat more vegetables, but the program puts the vegetables on the kitchen counter and shows people what to do with them.

The 2025 residential pilot was funded by Health Care Without Harm, an international nonprofit, and ran from July through November, Spectrum reported. Farm Executive Director Brooke McConnell told Spectrum then that the program would “help us extend our season over six months.” It also let the farm buy produce from other local growers to fill the boxes, which McConnell said helped farmers who were facing the loss of federal contracts.

This year’s grant is the second season of that residential model. Spectrum noted last year that food relief programs around the country faced uncertainty as federal support wavered, which is part of why local funders matter to this work.

Who is paying, and why

The Business for Good Foundation describes itself as a public foundation focused on workforce, housing and economic mobility. In the announcement, the foundation framed health and steady access to food as part of a family’s ability to work and stay financially stable. Executive Director Maire Masterson tied the gift to long-term health and financial stability for the families in the program, according to Saratoga TODAY.

The Pitney Meadows grant is one of several the foundation has made this year, according to Saratoga TODAY. The announcement listed these other recent steps:

• Support for three other nonprofits, including CAPTAIN Community Human Services in Clifton Park.
• The launch of a new workforce innovation initiative.
• The appointment of Ellen Sax and Charles Pinckney to the foundation’s board of directors.

McConnell said in the announcement that demand keeps rising. She said the gift helps the farm “meet a level of community need that continues to grow,” as quoted by Saratoga TODAY.

The same gift was also reported by The Post-Star in late September.

About the farm

The farm itself, Pitney Meadows Community Farm, is a nonprofit on conserved land at 223 West Ave., on the city’s West Side. According to the farm’s website, the property has 16 acres in vegetable production and another 30 acres under regenerative cover crops.

The Food as Medicine work is one piece of a larger operation. The farm’s website lists these other programs:

• Food for All, which the farm says delivers about 100,000 servings of fresh produce a year through a dozen or more hunger relief partners.
• More than 120 community garden beds priced on a sliding scale, plus 13 off-site gardens.
• A farm stand carrying goods from more than 25 local producers.
• A pick-your-own CSA.

What’s next at Pitney Meadows

The residential season wraps up in November. The next date on the farm’s calendar is the sixth annual Michael J. Pitney Farm Run on Saturday, October 10, which the farm says is open to runners, families, businesses and neighbors.

Our read: $20,000 is a modest grant, but in a program that buys produce from local farms and hands it to families at no cost, the money does double duty. The number to watch is how many more households the expanded program actually serves in 2026, and whether a funder steps up to carry the program into a third year.

For more about the city, see our Saratoga Springs town page. For another recent Saratoga Hospital story, see our report on the new aging center planned on Myrtle Street.

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