Donate too much of a good thing

How’s your vegetable garden doing this year? If you’re like a lot of gardeners, after that first vegetable gets ripe, there comes a flood of produce, often more than you could possibly use. After all, if two plants looked like a good idea in the spring, six looked even better. The neighbors and co-workers can only take so much.

There is one neighbor, though, who will take any and all of your extra garden produce: your local food bank and the Plant a Row for the Hungry project. According to Rod Wieber, director of donor and community relations for Second Harvest, the need is growing rapidly as low-income families struggle to balance rising fuel and food costs with other expenses. Buying expensive but healthy produce and fruit usually ends up low on the list. Wieber noted that the rising cost of fuel to truck food to Second Harvest means they can’t bring in as much food to meet the need.

One Inland Northwest group has already made a big dent this year in the need in Bonner County. The garden crew at the Bonner County Jail has donated 720 pounds of lettuce, carrots, beets and radishes to the food banks in Old Town, Priest River, Sandpoint and Clark Fork. Last year, in the garden’s first year, the inmates grew and donated more than 5,000 pounds from their quarter-acre garden located near the jail in Sandpoint. Sheriff Elaine Savage felt the garden was a good way for inmates to give back to the community, according to Sgt. Bob Van Buren, inmate work crew supervisor. Van Buren says the garden is one of the inmates’ favorite work details and several people have taken a personal ownership of different garden projects.

To put the inmates’ effort into perspective – if a serving of vegetables is about 3 ounces, that’s 2,880 servings of fresh produce for low-income Bonner County families this year and 20,000 last year. If the guys at the Bonner County Jail can donate that much, so can the rest of us in the Inland Northwest.

To donate, locate your closest food bank and find out what hours they are open and taking donations. Most food banks are open a limited amount of time. If you are in the Spokane area, you can locate a food bank by going to Second Harvest’s Web site, www.2-harvest.org and look under the Get Help section.

Any type of vegetable in any amount is welcome but sturdy vegetables and fruits that are commonly available in the grocery store are the most popular. Fragile greens and herbs need to be delivered the day the neighborhood food bank is serving clients. Ask for a Plant a Row for the Hungry donation receipt. You can take $1.50 a pound as a federal tax donation and Plant a Row can tally up the total poundage at the end of the season.

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