Concrete Jungle’s nutrition education program, PEEL (Produce Education and Enjoyment Loop), lowers the barrier of distributing produce by providing direct education at food pantries.
Written by Lorie Bonham, Strategic Programming and Expansion Manager VISTA. Fruit and Vegetable Picking Concrete Jungle coordinates approximately 70 volunteer events per year, engaging more than 960 volunteers from the Atlanta metropolitan community. Through this work, Concrete Jungle educates participants on Atlanta and Georgia’s horticultural…
Concrete Jungle, an Atlanta-based nonprofit, recovers the abundance of ignored, fresh produce growing in our streets, yards, and parks to meet health and nutrition needs of our homeless and food insecure population
Towards the end of the growing season (October in Pacific NW), start visiting local stores and writing letters to seed companies asking for donations of last year’s seed. It helps to include your Employer Identification Number (EIN) in your letter to prove your organization’s non-profit status and to allow the donor to deduct donations from their taxes..
EFN began as a program in 1982 when the leadership of FISH Food Banks, Tacoma Rescue Mission, Salvation Army, and Associated Ministries recognized a great need in our community to resource emergency food collectively..
Thurston County Food Bank distributed thousands of plant starts during spring and early summer of 2011. Other TCFB programs like the school garden project have plant starts grown for them, but the gleaning program received excess donations from growers. Use this opportunity to introduce yourself to potential donors..
Thurston County Food Bank (TCFB) is located in Olympia, WA. Established by volunteers in 1965, TCFB has continued to grow since that time. TCFB reaches the community through a variety of services; food bank distribution, satellite location distribution, FORKids, mobile food bank sites, and summer lunch program..
To access plant sales as a gleaning resource, first contact the people organizing the plant sale and offer your program as an option for any fruit or vegetable plants that might be left over after the sale. Master Gardener plant sales are great because they grow high quality plants and have a diversity of species and varieties..
During the 2012 growing season, the gleaning program in Yakima re-packed and distributed an estimated 730 lbs. of seeds to food banks, meal programs, community gardens, and community partners. Volunteers re-packed donated 40-50 lb. bags of seed into half envelope seed packets..
U-pick orchards are a great gleaning resource because they are easy to access and often have harvesting materials on-site for your use. Also, U-pick growers can be a great asset for volunteer management because they work regularly with inexperienced pickers. The Yakima Valley Produce Harvest has used u-pick orchards to diversify both the type of growers..