Lacey resident E.J. Hardebeck normally spends the summer on vacation, reading or lazing about.
But this summer, he and 10 other Komachin Middle School students are volunteering to tend 18 vegetable beds they're planting for low-income families.
"We have this garden, and we're not using it very much," he said. "There's nothing planted in here but weeds, so it was just a waste. There are people who need what we have."
The students aren't alone this planting season.
Farmers, backyard gardeners and groups across the county have begun planting seeds and tilling land in a unified effort to keep the Thurston County Food Bank's shelves stocked. Farm land that would normally lie fallow and surplus vegetables that would otherwise go to waste have found a new purpose.
The food bank had a record 58,055 client visits last year, said Robert Coit, executive director at the food bank. The number has increased 30 percent a month during the past seven months, in part because higher gasoline prices have forced people to funnel more of their paychecks into fueling their cars to drive to work. At the same time, the food bank has opened satellite sites at two large low-income apartment complexes.
The food bank gets donated produce from growers, but donations ebb in the cold months. So Coit uses cash donations and reserves to buy produce.
In February, Garden-Raised Bounty began pulling local growers together. Some, like GRuB and The Kiwanis Club, had grown for the food bank before. Others were newcomers. Fourteen groups or individual growers are now on board, with the combined goal of growing 30,000 pounds of food this year, said Blue Peetz, GRuB coordinator. The Gleaners Coalition, which dispatches volunteers to help farms harvest excess food, is also a partner.
Planting has begun at GRuB's greenhouse on Elliot Avenue and at The Kiwanis Club's half-acre farm near Mud Bay Road. The Kiwanis Club is the food bank's single largest donor, delivering 15,000 pounds of produce last year. They hope to match or surpass that amount this year, he said.
"It's a fairly productive small patch," said Don Leaf of The Kiwanis Club. "We've been producing fresh produce for the food bank for several years. We try to harvest when things are ripe and not overripe, and try to deliver it immediately."
In Rochester, the Helsing Junction Farm has set aside two acres for the food bank where they've planted carrots, beets, fennel and chard, said Susan Ujcic, co-owner. The Gleaners and H.E.A.R.T. Alternative High School students will help harvest.
The food bank also will benefit from the farm's community-supported agriculture program. Under CSA, members pay monthly for a full or half share and, in return, get weekly produce and flowers, often getting more food than the cost of their share. The farm is matching every $1 that CSA members donate, and the money is used to provide shares to food bank clients.
The Gleaners are organizing a giving garden, where they'll grow herbs and vegetables, at the Olympia Community Gardens and Bentley Farms, said Barry Cannon, who heads the group. The Gleaners will organize work parties to run the garden, its volunteers will keep any harvest they need and the rest will be donated to the food bank and other area emergency food and meal programs.
In addition, the Gleaners will launch a food preparation display starting May 24, where they'll prepare dishes at the food bank using the vegetables and herbs clients receive. They'll serve samples and hand out recipe kits, especially for vegetables people might not be familiar with, like kohlrabi, which is a cabbage that resembles a turnip.
"You give it to somebody and it's a weird-looking thing and people might not know what to do with it," Cannon said. "It's also nutritional teaching. Greens can be cooked so much they turn brown and limp. We'll teach them how to hold the nutrition in the vegetables."
Kiwanis Club member Don Leaf tills the soil Thursday morning as he and other members get ready for planting on their half-acre garden on 11th Avenue.
HOW TO HELP
Garden-Raised Bounty seeks donated seeds for food bank growers and low-income families who are planting vegetable gardens through its kitchen garden project.
Garden-Raised Bounty (GRUB)
http://www.goodgrub.org grub@goodgrub.org telephone (360) 753.5522
Volunteers are needed at the Kiwanis Club's farm a few hours a week. Organizer Don Leaf can be reached at (360) 357.7188
The Gleaners Coalition needs volunteers to harvest and move food from the farms to the food bank. They are also raising funds for garden tools and seeking a donated biodiesel truck that runs for delivering food.
Anyone with a backyard garden can plant extra and contact the Gleaners Coalition for help harvesting or delivering the produce.
The Gleaners Coalition
http://www.gleanerscoalition.org renee@gleanerscoalition.org telephone (360) 705.2375
Thurston County Food Bank
http://www.thurstoncountyfoodbank.org (360) 352-8597
Left Foot Organics for Disabled People
http://www.leftfootorganics.org (360) 754-1849
Seattle P-Patch program for the hungry
http://www.seattle.gov/neighborhoods/ppatch http://www.seattletilth.org Grow A Row for the poor
http://www.cnh.bc.ca/foodsecurity/growarow.htm Victory Gardens International Movement to feed the poor
http://www.victorygardens.net School Gardens
http://www.edibleschoolyard.org/homepage.html Organic Gardening Technologies for teachers and students
and Gardening Therapy
http://adelaide.indymedia.org/newswire/display/12155/index.php Community Gardens for the poor
http://www.communitygarden.org.au/about/benefits.html http://www.communitygarden.org/publications.php http://www.greenthumbnyc.org http://www.yesmagazine.com/article.asp?ID=576 Food Securtiy
http://www.foodsecurity.org/links.html Organic Gardens
http://www.acresusa.com http://organicconsumer.org Community Supported Agriculture (CSA)
http://www.cuco.org.uk/index.php?page=3 http://www.localharvest.org/csa.jsp Organic Allotment Gardening for the poor
http://www.hhdra.org.uk/ eco recycling: saving energy & water INTELLIGENTLY
http://pr.indymedia.org/news/2006/04/15506.php volunteering to work on organic farms
http://www.wwoof.org fighting hunger:
http://www.carbon.org http://www.trees.co.za http://www.gardenorganic.org.uk http://www.moringatrees.org http://www.permacultureinternational.org http://www.seedinternational.com.au http://www.permaculture.org.uk http://www.csa-india.org http://neemfoundation.org http://www.neemresource.com http://www.treesforlife.org http://www.growbiointensive.org http://ru.indymedia.org/newswire/display/14761/index.php
I do not understand all this stuff.
Why not plant some genetically modified seed?
Why not spray the plants with toxic chemical pesticides and herbicide?
I was thinking of spraying the grandchildren with the pesticides to see if it would get rid their head lice.
Why not put some contaminated chemical fertilizer on the plants?
Maybe if fertilizer was put in children's food they might grow faster.
I think the fear of cancer is over blown.
You can always get Chemotherapy.
What is the big deal about breast cancer?
What do women need those things for anyway?
Just get a Mastectomy.
Toxic George
Bush@Enron-Bankruptcy.com End of the World Death Cult Society of America
at my ranch in Texas, USA KKK
http://www.blackboxvoting.org http://www.votergate.tv book: Confessions of an Economic Hit Man
author: John Perkins
http://www.johnperkins.org USA is testing Dangerous Pesticides on Children
Is your child next? Is there a body bag with your child’s name on it?
No child left behind.
http://www.organicconsumer.org/epa6.cfm http://www.moscowfoodcoop.com/books/wilson.html http://www.bibleplus.org/health/ms_lupus.htm http://www.organicconsumers.org/BTC/cocacola082405.cfm http://www.bhopal.net http://www.foodrevolution.org/askjohn/43.htm http://www.victoryoveradhd.com