An extra row for the hungry

For Beverly Hawker and the Young Women’s Program in the Church of Jesus Christ of the Latter-day Saints’ 17th Ward in Newman Lake, planting a vegetable garden is a way to not only teach the 12- to 18-year-old girls how to grow their own food and learn about their pioneer heritage, it is also a way to reach out to the rest of the community by donating what they grow to Plant a Row for the Hungry.

At Our Lady of Fatima’s Roman Catholic Church on Spokane’s South Hill, Dan Glatt’s high-school-aged youth group wants to connect with older gardeners in their congregation. Growing a vegetable garden on the church grounds and donating the produce to a local food bank is a win-win situation for everyone.

For Lynn Romey and her family of six, planting a garden will put produce on their table and teach the kids how to garden, while giving back to the community.

All across the region, gardeners are using the power of vegetable plots to fight a significant problem in the region. And it’s a powerful tool. Last year, gardeners came through with 44,650 pounds of fresh vegetables, or the equivalent of 178,600 servings of nutritionally packed food.

While the local economy is doing better, there are still hungry people. According to Ann Price, director of communication and development for Second Harvest of the Inland Northwest, the food pantries her agency serves still saw an 11 percent increase in request for emergency food assistance in 2004. “Our agencies are seeing about 16,000 clients a month; about 7,000 of those are children.

“Three quarters or more of (our clients) are living below the poverty line for a family of three,” says Price. “They pay a good portion of that in rent and have to do everything else with what’s left over. So when they go to the grocery store, they aren’t looking at fresh produce or meat. They can’t afford to.”

The Plant a Row for the Hungry project of the Inland Empire Gardeners and the Garden Writers Association would like to challenge all area vegetable gardeners to join the effort to grow and donate at least 60,000 pounds of fresh produce and fruit before the end of October.

It’s not difficult.

“At some point during the summer, we gardeners all have more in our gardens than we can use while it’s fresh,” says Price. “One outlet for that is to work through the Plant a Row, and give it directly to a neighborhood pantry, or another organization that gets fresh food to folks.”

An even better idea would be to plant an extra row of corn, beans, carrots, potatoes or whatever you are growing. Get kids involved in learning how to grow plants. Make it a game with their friends as to who can grow the most or biggest carrots. Even young kids can plant large seeds like beans, corn or squash.

Almost any vegetable or fruit is welcome but sturdy vegetables and fruits commonly available in the grocery store are best. Things like tomatoes, squashes, beans, cabbage and other vegetables “that hold up to handling better than, say, lettuce and herbs,” says Price. She suggests it’s best to donate fragile leafy greens and herbs on the day the pantry is serving clients. And don’t forget the apples and late-season squashes in the fall.

Price has one last request concerning donations:

While they love normal-sized zucchini, she suggests leaving the giant ones that got lost under the leaves, in the compost pile.

“We don’t have any more opportunity than anyone else to use those giants.”