Plant a Row for the Hungry

I got involved with the Plant a Row for the Hungry program, via the backdoor. I am not a professional garden writer (Garden Writers Association (GWA) sponsors the Plant a Row for the Hungry program). When I say via the backdoor, I mean that it happened one day, that I had 4 extra bushels of Roma tomatoes on my vines. I couldn't bear for them to rot there, so I began calling up my local food banks. Lickety split, I found a home for all those tomatoes. All I had to do was pick them, and deliver them. I hadn't grown all those tomatoes on purpose, but rather they were the result of my successful backyard gardening. Later that fall, I did the same thing with the 2 extra bushels of carrots I had grown. These I timed, so I dug them fresh out of the ground for Thanksgiving.

I was hooked. I am a gardener, and it was all too easy for me to grow way more produce then me and my family could use. That is how I learned of the Plant a Row for the Hungry program. I did try and launch a valley wide campaign via the instructions on the GWA site Start a Campaign. I made a pitch to that years training Master Gardeners. I organized a "Kick off Day" and invited all the local churches to participate, and I invited all 3 local news channels. We planted beets and radishes (early season cool crops). I also teamed with the local food bank distributor, who distributed food to 70 other food banks. That was the year I had pneumonia. My health just wasn't good enough to lead such a program.

I continued on my own, growing food for the food bank. Green Beans, Zucchini, Cucumbers, and Tomatoes. I also harvested over 5 bushels of peaches one year for the food bank. One year, I gleaned from an abandoned Apricot tree, a bushel of Apricots for the food bank. Personally, as an over zealous gardener, I found this willing recipient of my efforts to be very gratifying.

I did hook up with a lady from a different state, who had a Plant a Row for the Hungry program. As she told it to me, leading the effort was a professional garden writer who wrote a daily Garden column for the local newspaper. This newspaper had a voice I couldn't duplicate. It even says so on the Garden Writers Association (GWA) website:

The purpose of Plant a Row for the Hungry is to create and sustain a grassroots program whereby garden writers utilize their media position with local newspapers, magazines and radio/TV programs to encourage their readers/listeners to donate their surplus garden produce to local food banks, soup kitchens and service organizations to help feed America’s hungry.

And I can easily understand where this leadership would be more effective. Never-the-less it doesn't stop an individual gardener from supplying their own food bank. Even if you can't grow produce, it takes dollars to run these Plant a Row for the Hungry campaigns. See GWA Foundation Plant a Row for the Hungry Make a Difference -- Make a Donation