Plant a row for others

Are you looking for a summer project for the kids? Would you be interested in a way to help out the community without leaving home? With the price of gas right now, doing something from home may sound like an extra good idea.

Here’s what to do: Plant an extra row of vegetables in your garden and then donate the resulting produce to local food banks. You will join thousands of Inland Northwest gardeners who are fighting hunger through Plant a Row for the Hungry.

Last year, Spokane gardeners generously donated nearly 90,000 pounds of garden-fresh produce and fruit to 20 Spokane-area food banks; enough to provide 360,000 servings of absolutely fresh, nutrition-packed food to people who can’t afford to pay a dollar a pound for veggies at the store.

This year, gardeners in Sandpoint, West Bonner County and Clark Fork, Idaho, will join the Plant a Row effort. Spearheaded by Ann Warwick and the Bonner County Master Gardeners, gardeners in these areas can take their produce to the Bonner Community Food Bank; the West Bonner County Food Bank in Old Town; and the Clark Fork Food Bank.

The need for the fresh produce is great. Food requests to food banks in the Second Harvest network are still growing in spite of what some say is an improving economy: 44 percent of those in need of food are children under 18 years old, 11 percent are age 55 and older, 97 percent of clients are very low income, earning less than 50 percent of the median family income in Spokane County ($2,046 a month for a family of three).

You can get your kids involved in the project, too. Not only would they learn how to grow some of their own food, they’ll also learn how to be active and contributing members of our community. If they like the idea, you can even make it a game with their friends to see who can grow the most or the biggest carrots. Even the smallest kids can plant large seeds like beans, corn or squash. And of course, take the young growers with you when you go to the food bank.

Almost any vegetable or fruit is accepted at local food banks, but sturdy vegetables and fruits commonly available in the grocery store are in highest demand, like tomatoes, squashes, beans, cabbage, which are considerably better than lettuce and herbs, for instance, unless they are delivered on the day the pantry is serving clients, said Ann Price of Second Harvest Inland Northwest.

Plant a Row for the Hungry is a national effort sponsored locally by The Inland Empire Gardeners and nationally by the Garden Writers Association.