Food Banks Requesting Home Gardeners To Help Out With Produce - "Grow A Row" Program Expanding

[hatrack]

LANGDON, N.H. (AP) — Sharon Crossman hadn't tasted fresh fruits or vegetables in a week. Since her husband had two heart attacks and stopped working, she has relied on disability checks and the free food provided by a food pantry. But lately, the only fresh produce available at the Fall Mountain Foodshelf where she volunteers has been shriveled potatoes and sprouting onions.

Pantry director Mary Lou Huffling expects that to change soon, as she has begun asking local gardeners and farmers to grow extra rows of produce to donate. "Almost everyone around here has a garden," said Huffling, who also runs a program that delivers meals to the hungry in this rural part of southwestern New Hampshire. "If they would grow a row for the food program and the Friendly Meals program, it would help so much." At least 50 families have responded to Huffling's request and she thinks about 100 will end up participating. In July, she expects to feed fresh vegetables to 100 to 130 families each week. "People have been very excited about it," Huffling said.

She has learned that her idea and even the name she chose for it, Grow a Row, are not new. Sharp increases in food and fuel prices and the shaky economy are creating alarming shortages at food banks and pantries around the country at the same time that demand is surging. Programs like Plant a Row for the Hungry, a national campaign that encourages gardeners to grow extra produce for donation, and New Jersey-based Grow-a-Row, are similar to Huffling's.

"Because of the rising food costs and gas costs people are unable to buy what they need," said Carol Ledbetter, program administrator of the Virginia-based Garden Writers Association, which began sponsoring Plant a Row for the Hungry in 1995. "There's a greater need for the food and so our program is even more important."

EDIT

http://ap.google.com/article/ALeqM5iINl3gtilBZ0ECdv30f1ttvLhs2wD9162V200

[kestrel91316]

1. If the hundreds of thousands of houses in the San Fernando Valley

ALL had a backyard vegetable garden, we could CHANGE THE WORLD, or at least our little corner of it. But no, people are too busy watching American Idol, and besides, potato chips and beer and Twinkies don't grow on plants.

[murray hill farm]

3. Did you know that.....

one cannot buy seeds with food stamps? But, what a difference it might make if they could....and maybe a few simple lessons in growing a garden. I do love the plant an extra row, as well. Another thought is that this is something that churches could do so easily too. Many churches have a lot of land used just to grow grass. What if they converted this to gardens? The members of the church could plant and care for the gardens..and then the produce could be given to those in so much need. It would be a strong statement of caring for the community if churches should decide to make this a mission for their church and congregation.
It does not take much space to grow vegtables for a family with the new square foot gardening techniques. Maybe communities could offer classes for anyone who wanted to learn this method.

[NickB79]

2. Victory gardens are the wave of the future

But I doubt people will be giving any of that food away to the less fortunate, when their own cupboards are looking bare.

Anyone else have the crazy idea that we should be doing things like planting our parks in with fruit trees instead of worthless ornamental crabapples and spruce trees? That's always been my dream, that places like Apple Valley Park down the road from me would actually have APPLE trees growing in it. And that we could turn green spaces that currently grow grass (which requires mowing and produces nothing) into community gardens, or that my apartment manager would at least let me grow a large garden in the courtyard. Crazy, huh?

Of course, my girlfriend always ends my rant by asking "what would stop a few people from hoarding all the fruit and then selling it to make a buck?" My answer is an angry mob who would beat their asses, but she's right as usual. People will generally look out for themselves first and foremost, even if it means fucking the community as a whole.

[Zachstar]

4. Your girlfriend is wise.

Times are going to get desperate and even thoughts of jail time are not going to deter people going around and stealing crops from even home gardens.


The best we can do is the rebirth of victory gardens and only Obama can get us off our collective asses to start that up again.

[Zachstar]

5. Its good to see this happening but it wont last.

People who have these gardens are going to start noticing their own stocks of fruits and veggies dropping due to insane price jumps.