Now going into its fourth season, the concept is simple. Most home gardeners harvest more than they can eat. Why not contribute your extra home-grown produce to the hungry? Better yet, why not specifically plant an extra row or two with donations to your local food bank a priority?
"There are more than 100 million home gardeners nationally," says Jeff Lowenfels, a past president of the sponsoring Garden Writers Association of America, the largest organization of garden communicators in the world. "It doesn't take a rocket scientist to see the impact we can have on the hunger problem."
Marge Albaugh, director of St. Joseph's Family Center in Gilroy, California, notes that it is especially sad that people in California are still going hungry. "We live in such a rich agricultural area that it's surprising that we're always in need of fresh fruits and vegetables. And we're usually desperate for them."
In the first three years of Plant a Row for the Hungry, thousands of pounds of excess produce has been donated nationwide. In San Jose, California, alone, more than 65,000 pounds of produce was donated last year. Your donation -- whether it's a bag of tomatoes, crate of zucchini, truck load of apples, etc., -- is welcome and put to good use. "Nothing is too small a donation," Albaugh adds. "We've had people bring in one small bag of extra tomatoes. That's fine, we can use it."
The collection points for most Plant a Row for the Hungry programs are Second Harvest centers, a nationwide network of 200 food banks and 50,000 charitable organizations. If you don't know a local food collection point, call Second Harvest's headquarters at (312) 263-2303. Also, most cities have "soup kitchens" or organization like the Salvation Army that collects food or actually feeds the hungry. You can even call City Hall.
Whether your vegetable garden is large or small, add an additional row or bed, and plant something extra. If you usually put in four tomato plants, plant eight instead. If you normally plant one window box full of herbs, plant two; fresh herbs improve the flavor of most anything and the greens include minerals valuable to the diet.
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