J. Greene Painting Solicits Haiku to Generate Food Donations

LEEDS — Jason Greene, owner and founder of J. Greene Painting in Leeds, recently launched a new website with an artistic feature aimed at raising awareness and food donations for the Northampton Survival Center.

Greene said he upgraded www.jgreenepainting.com because his eight-year-old site needed a facelift, and he also wanted to update photos of completed projects and client testimonials.

To add interest and a bit of whimsy to the site, Greene created a feature through which visitors can submit haiku poetry. Each haiku submission must use the names of three paint colors from a list of 26 that Greene provides — 13 from Benjamin Moore and 13 from Sherwin-Williams.

For each haiku that’s submitted, Greene will donate a pound of food to the survival center, with a maximum donation of 100 pounds. The poems may be submitted at www.jgreenepainting.com/haiku.

“I think people like to be challenged. They’re educated. People like to be engaged, and they like to participate. This is a fun way to get involved and support the survival center,” Greene said. “People don’t need to bring cans anywhere. They don’t have to donate money. Just by submitting a clever haiku, they can generate a pound of food for someone in need.”

J. Greene Painting was established 12 years ago by Greene, who works with a team of five employees — 10 in the summer months — that also includes his father, Richard Greene. The company provides interior and exterior residential and commercial painting.

Greene used the haiku concept on his site about six years ago, as a contest. He has also run several similar contests in the past on his Facebook page, offering gift cards as prizes. In this promotion, there are no winners and no prizes, but he hopes to raise awareness of the Northampton Survival Center.

“The Valley is so great about giving,” he said. “I want people to be able to watch each other submit and watch the pounds of food accumulate.”

A haiku is a Japanese poem of 17 syllables, usually presented in three lines. Greene said clients who have visited his website in the past often remark about the haiku poetry that is contained on it.

One example of a haiku on Greene’s company site came from Lisa Labrecque of West Springfield, who wrote, “The Night Train crawls by/Hopeful is a Windy Sky/Along New Age comes.” Night Train, Windy Sky, and New Age are all paint-color names.