Community Corner
Plant a Row for the Hungry
Plant A Row for The Hungry
Donate Your Extra Freshly Grown Produce to the Food Pantry
Here’s a great idea from the Garden Writers Association. Now is the ideal time to plan summer gardens that could yield a bounty of vegetables and herbs. What will you do with the extra tomatoes, cucumbers, lettuce or zucchini? Why not give this fresh produce to the Wakefield Interfaith Food Pantry to support the effort to help our neighbors in need with locally grown, healthy foods?
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The Plant A Row for the Hungry program which was launched in 1995 also encourages gardening enthusiasts to dedicate a row (or more) specifically for distribution to local food pantries.
Garden Writers Association website states that 20 million pounds of produce providing over 80 million meals have been donated by American gardeners since 1995. All of this has been achieved without government subsidy or bureaucratic red tape - just people helping people. There are over 84 million households with a yard or garden in the U.S. If every gardener plants one extra row of vegetables and donates their surplus to local food agencies and soup kitchens, a significant impact can be made on reducing hunger.
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According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, 1 in 8 households in the United States experiences hunger or the risk of hunger. Many frequently skip meals or eat too little, sometimes going without food for an entire day. Approximately 33 million people, including 13 million children, have substandard diets or must resort to seeking emergency food because they cannot always afford the food they need. The demand for hunger assistance has increased by 70% in recent years, and research shows that hundreds of hungry children and adults are turned away from food banks each year because of lack of resources.
Get out your gardening gloves, tools and seeds and plant a row for the Wakefield Food Pantry!
The pantry will also be open on Saturday mornings in late summer and early fall for people to drop off their harvest. Call 781-245-2510 for details.
