The Philanthropic Family

Here’s a great idea from an article in the Baltimore Sun*:  Do you have a garden?  Too many tomatoes to possibly eat?  Extra zucchini?  I’ve had generous neighbors offer me extra tomatoes many times.  Have you ever considered donating some portion of your bounty to the local food pantry?  They probably need it more than your friends.

The Sun article mentions two other programs that encourage people to use personal gardens to generate fresh produce, which is often in short supply at food pantries: Plant a Row for the Hungry and Grow-A-Row.

Plant a Row for the Hungry

The Plant a Row (PAR) program was first started in Anchorage, Alaska by a man who writes about gardens named Jeff Lowenfels.  He began encouraging readers to plant an extra row in their garden and donate the produce to a local soup kitchen.  Through a partnership with Garden Writers Association (Lowenfels was a previous president of the organization), it’s grown to where volunteers donate 10 million pounds of produce each year.

“PAR’s role is to provide focus, direction and support to volunteer committees who execute the programs at the local level. We help gather the human resources necessary to form a nucleus for a local committee. Then we provide training and direction to enable the committee to reach out into the community. Finally, we assist in coordinating the local food collection systems and monitor the volume of donations being conveyed to the soup kitchens and food banks.”

The PAR concept was adapted in Canada as Plant a Row – Grow a Row.  Their web site includes a great section on how to involve kids in your gardening project.  Just click on “Looking for Some Fun Stuff” to find good articles for any beginning gardener.  I love the idea of gardening with my kids and then taking them on a trip to donate some of the produce together.

Grow a Row

There is a similar organization in Pittstown, NJ called “Grow a Row” that enlists the community in gardening a quarter-acre and then gleaning a local orchard for extra produce that was missed by commercial processing but can still be donated if it’s just collected by hand.

Makes me wonder what other areas in my life are producing a little extra that I could share with someone else.

*Thanks to On Philanthropy “Buzz” for the link to the Baltimore Sun article.

Tags: charity, donate produce, food bank, food pantry, garden writers, gardening, gleaning, grow a row, kid's involvement, philanthropy, Plant a row, soup kitchen

This entry was posted on June 11, 2008 at 9:34 pm and is filed under Giving Things, Giving Time, Involving the Next Generation, Lifestyle. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.