I heard something on the radio about a group called "Plant a Row" (i think?) where gardeners plant extra stuff, then donate the extras to charity. Anyone here involved with such a group?
It seems to me, that donating some tomatoes or potatoes will not ever be able to get corrupted, like SO MUCH of cash donations do (tied up in administrative BS, or just lifted outright).
I'm thinking of putting in an additional row and looking for some local drop points for the veggies. seems like a good idea to me--i mean, my garden always produces way more than i can use anyways!
I used to do "plant a row" (the actual group), then I quit because of all the extra work involved...paperwork with your "pledge" then you had to take the stuff where they said, etc. Anyway, I still DO donate my extra stuff, but now I just take it where I want. I am a WW member. One of the other members works at a local homeless shelter. I take my extras to him and he takes them from there...even provides me with a receipt for tax purposes. Since I only go to meetings once per week, I sometimes have extra that I'm not sure will make it that long. I'm sure y'all know how it is when stuff all seems to come in at the same time! We have a "family services" office that isn't too far from me. They operate the local food pantry. I'll take my extra there. They are thrilled because they only have non-perishables so this way they can give people fresh fruits and vegetables. They also provide a receipt for tax purposes. One thing I found out...the ones here do NOT accept home canned items. Just thought I should add that in case anybody was wondering.
It's called 'Plant a Row for the Hungry' and sponsored by the Garden Writers Association of America.
formatting link
emailed them asking for the further information they offer and they never replied, which was disappointing. I'll probably try again - maybe they didn't receive my email.
But you don't need to be associated with this group: we contributed veggies to our local Food Bank last year, and will again this year (more, in fact, as I'm planting extra this year specifically for this purpose).
There's a terrific dearth of fresh stuff given out at the Food Bank, so any garden veggies are really welcomed.
A nice project (for someone else, my hands are full at the moment): Someone could set up a website where rec.gardens.edible posters could enter the types and amounts of veggies donated (and maybe their state or province and country) into a spreadsheet. The spreadsheet maintainer could post a summary monthly or quarterly.
Permission to use this posting in any venue other than the Usenet newsgroup rec.gardens.edible is specifically denied. If you are reading this message on a website, the website's owner has taken it without permission and in violation of my copyright.
Be sure to contact your food bank before you show up with a lot of perishable goodies. I know our local facility is woefully short of cooler space. They'd *like* to be able to handle a lot of produce, fresh dairy, etc., but just don't have the room. There can also be disposal problems for what goes bad. It can be tough to find ways to get fresh produce to those who truly need it, but don't give up!
I have grapes go to waste every year, I can't pick 'em and it seems that few want to pick them. Seedless Canadice, Himrod, a variety I don't know the name of but are seedless and WONDERFUL. I started them from a friend's vine. It was seeded in their yard, always had been, seedless in mine (except for those years where all the seedless varieties have pulpy seeds due to growing conditions), Mars and Venus deep red and black seedless. Wonderful grapes.
People want you to bring them to their doors at times.
This is not to say that is wouldn't be a good thing to grow a row or more for the homeless and hungry. Soup kitchens if nothing else would welcome fresh produce to make soup with, but food banks usually are not set up to store or distribute fresh foods unless they have a brisk business every day.
I think there are some church groups here in town who would manage to get overripe bananas donated as I'd seen the stuff they were giving out on a couple occasions when I'd driven friends out to get things. They were ready for banana bread.
Years ago they used to have a commodity food program and they gave out some things that were better than you could buy.. huge pitted prunes and nice raisins, powdered eggs.. while not something you'd want to eat as scrambled eggs were great to make baking mixes with.
We had, don't know if they still are in operation, Gleaners who went out into the fields after mechanical harvesters had cleaned out what they could from the fields, and they would get all the produce that the machinery had missed and bring it in for the food banks and soup kitchens. I'll have to try to find them this year and see if they want anything that might grow after some are pruned to correct what someone had done with them... sheared them like a hedge! LOL
Our local Food Bank meets twice per month. Those are the days we bring in garden veggies (when we have them, of course). No storage is involved. We just give the basket of veggies to the volunteers and they set them on a table for people to help themselves.
The food distributed is fairly crappy, and there's almost nothing fresh, so any fresh veggies are *really**really* appreciated. The people at the Food Bank are very happy to get garden veggies.
I can only speak for our local Food Bank (which is not a commodity food program): most of the food is low quality (stale doughnuts, stale bagels, and the like). Some is OK. Occasionally, there will be an item or two of nutritionally very good food. Rarely.
I know whereof I speak, my husband and I are recipients of food at this Food Bank (as well as donors of garden veggies when we have them), by virtue of our present ridiculously low income.
There's a new gardening charity for people who are interested in eatin well while doing good. It's called Kitchen Gardeners International. For more info, see www.kitchengardeners.or
- rdoiro
----------------------------------------------------------------------- posted via
My kids go to a school that has a "service project" required of the middle schoolers. This school also has a large field as part of its grounds; a big stretch of land that is unused.
I have proposed to the curriculum development people that they might want to combine the service projects with the science/botany classes and come up with a mutually adventitious concept.
I told them I'll volunteer my time to help build some gardens so the kids can learn about growing plants, and when the crops come in, we can sell them at the farmers' market and donate the proceeds to charity. Either that, or give the produce to a food bank that can use them well.
Win-Win, IMHO, but I'm still waiting to hear back.
Pat, that's something I could easily do and post at
formatting link
People making donations could simply e-mail " bill thirteen five ten at wwnetdotnet and I will place them in a spreadsheet for inclusion in a web page. No problemo.
HomeOwnersHub website is not affiliated with any of the manufacturers or service providers discussed here.
All logos and trade names are the property of their respective owners.