Twelve years ago, one man, Jeff Lowenfels, a columnist for the Anchorage Daily News, asked his readers, in the state with the shortest growing season in the country, to donate fresh produce from their gardens to the hungry. And they did. In spades.
And so began Plant a Row for the Hungry, a nationwide grassroots movement where people help people. No bureaucratic red tape. No governmental oversight. Just a collection of backyard kitchen gardeners, community gardeners, school gardeners, and farmers who help pierce the darkness of hunger by either sharing their unexpected surplus--a particularly robust zucchini crop, for instance--or dedicating everything from a specific row or rows of their garden or farm to sharing with the one-in-ten of all Americans who are hungry and without food each day. Millions of pounds of fresh produce have made their way from digging hands to desperate hands.
In Atlanta, the Plant a Row campaign benefits people served through the Atlanta Community Food Bank and sixteen partner agencies across North Georgia. Places like the Alzheimer's Support Service Center. The Salvation Army. The United Methodist Children's Home.
The Atlanta Plant a Row's campaign goal for 2007 is 35,000 pounds of donated fresh produce. I have some things to give today. Onions. Beans. Rosemary. Not much. Maybe five pounds total. But it would only take 7,000 gardeners donating five pounds of fresh produce for Atlanta to reach its goal. From a city of millions.
Yes. One man can start a nationwide program. And one seed in one garden can yield enough to matter.
Click here to find out more about Plant a Row for the Hungry. For the Atlanta campaign, click here.
Twelve years ago, one man, Jeff Lowenfels, a columnist for the Anchorage Daily News, asked his readers, in the state with the shortest growing season in the country, to donate fresh produce from their gardens to the hungry. And they did. In spades.
And so began Plant a Row for the Hungry, a nationwide grassroots movement where people help people. No bureaucratic red tape. No governmental oversight. Just a collection of backyard kitchen gardeners, community gardeners, school gardeners, and farmers who help pierce the darkness of hunger by either sharing their unexpected surplus--a particularly robust zucchini crop, for instance--or dedicating everything from a specific row or rows of their garden or farm to sharing with the one-in-ten of all Americans who are hungry and without food each day. Millions of pounds of fresh produce have made their way from digging hands to desperate hands.
In Atlanta, the Plant a Row campaign benefits people served through the Atlanta Community Food Bank and sixteen partner agencies across North Georgia. Places like the Alzheimer's Support Service Center. The Salvation Army. The United Methodist Children's Home.
The Atlanta Plant a Row's campaign goal for 2007 is 35,000 pounds of donated fresh produce. I have some things to give today. Onions. Beans. Rosemary. Not much. Maybe five pounds total. But it would only take 7,000 gardeners donating five pounds of fresh produce for Atlanta to reach its goal. From a city of millions.
Yes. One man can start a nationwide program. And one seed in one garden can yield enough to matter.
Click here to find out more about Plant a Row for the Hungry. For the Atlanta campaign, click here.