I’m not much of a gardener. I experiment. I find it to be fun. I fail at growing some things and succeed at others, similar to my every day life. I thankfully don’t have to rely on my garden to solely feed our family. However this year our family garden will have some new purpose.
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| Miss E helped her daddy plant our garden last May and will again this month. |
We are growing vegetables for our family to enjoy, extras to freeze and can if my schedule allows. We usually have plenty to share but also this year we are growing extra vegetables to donate to our local food pantry and will participate as a part of the Hunger Free Garden Project. This is a program that is now a part of my work at the North Dakota Department of Agriculture but of course my own participation is voluntary. I think no matter where you live we could create a tremendous movement by each of us planting an extra row of vegetables to donate to a food pantry, soup kitchen or other charitable food organization. If you have the land, plant more and if you have less, any amount can help.
A container garden concept like this one I saw on Pinterest would work great.
I recently ordered, as in last night at midnight, vegetable seed from Gurney’s with a half off coupon. I added a few extra packets of green beans, beets, carrots, sweet corn and an extra 2 lbs. of seed potatoes.
Our state wide goal is harvest 500,000 pounds of produce for over 200 charitable food organizations. Whether our family donates 5 lbs. or 50 lbs, I am excited for our kids to learn life lessons from this project. I think a few life lessons are in store for the adults too. I have visited with our church pastor about getting involved and other community members. I posted on Facebook and now I am sharing here.
No matter where you live, would you be willing to grow an extra row or two in your garden or even start a garden that you maybe have never had to donate to your local food pantry or soup kitchen?
Track how many pounds you donate and we can have our own virtual Hunger Free Garden Project across blog land. Ideas are bubbling now. First things first, my garden needs a little fertilizer and tender, loving care before planting. Consider the idea and let me know if you are willing to participate no matter your location. If you are “local” meaning anywhere in my home state of North Dakota, click here to learn more and sign up.
what a great effort! i’ve never gardened here in texas.
Wow. Good luck with that!
Thank you so much for gardening to feed the hungry! Gardeners and growers in all 50 states across the US can find local food pantries eager to receive fruit and vegetable donations by using the free zip code search tool found at http://www.ampleharvest.org/find-pantry.php. AmpleHarvest.org uses the internet to connect gardeners with food pantries withing their communities, allowing neighbors to feed hungry neighbors. Over 5,000 pantries have registered so far, but with an estimated 35,000 pantries in America, we have a long way to go. If you know of a food pantry in your town that hasn’t yet registered (that’s free too!) please encourage them to do so by sharing http://www.AmpleHarvest.org/pantry.
Best of luck with the Hunger Free ND Garden Project! We would love to work with you to get the word out to every agency served by North Dakota food banks.
What an awesome post, I love this idea. I too love to garden, but do not always succeed and we try to be as creative as possible with the extras!!! I can’t wait to see how much you all produce!