Planning a garden? Consider donating your extra produce to local food pantries
Hey! This is a pretty cool idea. If you’re a gardener planning your spring garden, consider planting a bit more and donating the extras to a local food pantry. AmpleHarvest.org makes it pretty simple to connect gardeners to pantries–we’ve even got a couple in the Northside.
From the release:
So, as you order seeds please think about planting a little more for your neighbors–those you know and those you don’t yet. If your place of worship or community center has a food pantry please encourage them to register on ampleharvest.org so that neighborhood gardeners can share the bounty once it starts rolling in. It’s an easy, common sense way to contribute to the community and to turn your outside past time into nourishment for others.
Richmond Food Not Bombs is also looking for these sorts of produce donations to help us with our weekly meal. We cook a vegetarian meal every Sunday at 2005 Barton Avenue, and then serve it in Monroe Park at 4pm. You can get in touch at rvafoodnotbombs@gmail.com or richmondfoodnotbombs.wordpress.com
You can also contact FeedMore (Central VA Food Bank) and get a list of pantries, shelters, soup kitchens, and other partner organizations in your immediate area. We encourage donations not only to our distribution center, but to our over 400 Agency members as well.
The Food Pantry at St. Thomas’ Episcopal Church (3602 Hawthorne Avenue 23222) is registered with AmpleHarvest.org. Each month, we serve approximately 600 people in our neighborhood (23222 and 23227 zip codes) and many of them would LOVE to receive your garden bounty!
Good to know Caroline. We are in the early stages of planning a community garden in the 23222 zip code and discussions have been ongoing as to where our overflow fresh produce would be best used in our area. I will make certain to pass your information onto our Association members.