Janice wrote:

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

Try searching on "Second Harvest". I think that's the name of the org. in the
northeast, anyway.

Mary

On Thu, 05 Feb 2004 10:37:45 -0700, Janice
wrote:



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.

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.



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.

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.


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


This would be nice.

Pat

Here's my favorite gardening charity, but I'm not impartial:

Kitchen Gardeners International
http://www.kitchengardeners.org


Roger Doiron

Here's my favorite gardening charity, but I'm not impartial:

Kitchen Gardeners International
http://www.kitchengardeners.org


Roger Doiron

There's a new gardening charity for people who are interested in eating well while doing good. It's called Kitchen Gardeners International. For more info, see www.kitchengardeners.org

(Bpyboy) wrote in message ...
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!


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.

Mark

The Plant a Row for the Hungry Organization is a good one.
Here is the Web Site: http://www.gwaa.org/par/

They'll be happy to send you information getting started and success stories.

On Wed, 04 Feb 2004 10:05:12 -0500, pat wrote:


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.

Pat Meadows

Pat, that's something I could easily do and post at
http://organic-earth.com

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.

Chugga

--
http://cannaday.us (genealogy)
http://organic-earth.com (organic gardening)
Uptimes below for the machines that created / host these sites.
19:22:00 up 50 days, 20:04, 8 users, load average: 0.11, 0.15, 0.18
21:58:52 up 34 days, 2:11, 4 users, load average: 0.03, 0.01, 0.00

On Wed, 04 Feb 2004 10:05:12 -0500, pat wrote:


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.

Pat Meadows

Pat, that's something I could easily do and post at
http://organic-earth.com

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.

Chugga

--
http://cannaday.us (genealogy)
http://organic-earth.com (organic gardening)
Uptimes below for the machines that created / host these sites.
19:22:00 up 50 days, 20:04, 8 users, load average: 0.11, 0.15, 0.18
21:58:52 up 34 days, 2:11, 4 users, load average: 0.03, 0.01, 0.00