Behind the Lens at GardenShare: Photographing Food Justice in Potsdam, NY
Behind the Lens at GardenShare: Photographing Food Justice in Potsdam, NY
There are shoots you take because someone needs photos, and then there are shoots that remind you why photography matters. My recent session with GardenShare in Potsdam, NY was the second kind.
What Is GardenShare?
GardenShare is a nonprofit based in Canton, NY, and they do something quietly essential for St. Lawrence County: they make sure people can actually eat. Their mission is building a local food system that ensures food security for every resident in the county — connecting consumers with producers, removing barriers to access, and advocating for food justice across one of the most rural regions in New York State.
In a county where high poverty rates, limited transportation, and a thinning farming population all stack up against families trying to put good food on the table, GardenShare fills the gap. They support farmers markets across St. Lawrence County — from Potsdam to Massena, Canton to Gouverneur — and run token programs that let SNAP recipients, seniors, veterans, and WIC families shop those markets with the same access as anyone else. A dollar at a North Country farmers market stretches further because of the work GardenShare does behind the scenes.
They also publish the St. Lawrence County Local Food Guide — a free annual print and online resource that maps out every farmers market, CSA farm, farm stand, U-pick, and local restaurant in the county. Thousands of copies get distributed every year. It's the kind of thing you don't notice until you need it, and then you can't imagine not having it.
Photographing the Mission
Getting to photograph an organization like this is a privilege. The work GardenShare does doesn't always look dramatic — it looks like a market manager setting up tables at 7am, a volunteer helping someone navigate their first SNAP token transaction, a farmer unloading produce they grew in North Country soil. But that's exactly what makes it worth photographing well.
My goal on shoots like this is to get out of the way and let the real moments surface. GardenShare's story is a human one — about neighbors taking care of neighbors, about farmers staying viable in a tough market, about a community deciding that everybody deserves access to good food. That doesn't need much staging.
Why Organizations Like GardenShare Matter to the North Country
St. Lawrence County is big, rural, and often overlooked. There's no Whole Foods, no DoorDash reaching most of the county, no easy fallback when the local food system struggles. What there is: farmers who care deeply about what they grow, community members who show up, and organizations like GardenShare holding the connective tissue together.
If you're in the North Country and you haven't checked out what GardenShare does, visit gardenshare.org. Their farmers market season runs spring through fall across multiple county locations, and if you're a farmer, food producer, or restaurant that sources locally, getting listed in their Food Guide is worth your time.
Working with Nonprofits in the North Country
Photography for nonprofits and community organizations is some of the most meaningful work I do out of Potsdam. If your organization has a story worth telling — a season of work, an event, a community program — I'd love to talk about what that could look like.
Check availability or send me a note here.
JD Meyers Productions is a photography and video production studio based in Potsdam, NY, serving St. Lawrence County and the North Country since 2018.