Monday, June 1, 2009

Planting the seeds to share the harvest

Tomorrow, June 2, is National Hunger Awareness Day: what are you doing to address hunger in your community?

Isabelle has been quite enjoying our little vegetable growing project - while growing it herself hasn't induced her to actually eat lettuce, she's pretty into it and so am I. Thanks to my friend, Rosemary (@sufficiency) I heard about the Plant A Row/Grow A Row project where gardeners plant an extra row to donate to the hungry.

Sounded like a great little project for us - and my parents donate a little space in their garden to do it. Especially with the news this week about the food banks hitting records (not good records), I hope our little project leads to a healthy harvest.


Red Cabbage:


Tomato Plants:

Sweet & Hot Peppers:

Broccoli:

Turnip Seedlings:

The whole shebang:

If you've already planted your garden and would still like to do this, try just desginating a little portion of the garden - it's surprisingly satisfying to feel like there's a bigger purpose to all that weeding. Anything can be donated, but it's most effective to stick to vegetables that don't require refrigeration after harvest and can keep for a few days.
You can find details of your local program here: http://www.growarow.org/indexENG.htm. In Toronto, the City has created a brochure to help you plan your row and figure out how to get it to those in need: http://www.toronto.ca/health/plant_a_row.pdf.

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