Are your eyes bigger than your stomach when it comes to planting your garden? Do your friends and family beg you to grow less squash? Convert some of that garden space to feed the hungry! As the spring growing season bursts forth and summer veggies are planted out we are ramping up our Plant a Row for the Hungry program. For the third year we’re asking Triangle gardeners to grow an extra row for Inter-Faith Food Shuttle, or just donate when they have extra fresh produce.
It’s easy to PAR-ticipate!
- Sign up here or email localproduce@foodshuttle.org.
- When you have extra produce, deliver it to one of our drop-off sites during scheduled times.
- We pick it up and deliver it to agencies in our network of more than 200 soup kitchens, food pantries, and mobile free markets in the Triangle. We may also use it in our Culinary Job Training Program or in nutrition classes for low-income communities.
Check our website to find the closest drop-off site to you.
We kicked off PAR in Wake County at Logan Trading Company back in March, and now we are preparing to expand our horizons into Durham and Chatham counties.
Durhamites, join us this Saturday May 7 to kick off Plant a Row in Durham! We’ll be at the Durham Farmers Market all market long, 8 to noon, signing up new PAR members, and also accepting produce donations. Look for us at the center of the market, next to the market info table.
When you sign up you’ll receive a starter kit with compost, seeds, planting guide, coupons to local garden stores, seed potatoes and more, and you’ll be entered into a drawing to win a DFM t-shirt, one of nine 50-pound bags of Black Kow compost from Stone Brothers & Byrd, and two free permaculture consultations with Naked Fruits, a new permaculture design and landscaping business based in Carrboro.
When you sign up for PAR, you can also purchase healthy organic transplants at the market, as well as ask the Master Gardeners your burning gardening questions. PLUS, it’s kids day at the market, and each kid will receive a free seedling.
If you know garden folks across the Chatham county line, tip them off to Plant a Row. We’re launching PAR in Chatham at Chatham Marketplace’s Fifth Birthday Party Saturday May 21, noon – 3 p.m. Expect the same kind of fun times and juicy give-aways!
And now let’s take a moment to remind ourselves why this work is important.
Did you know that in this area low income communities have some of the highest rates of obesity/chronic disease AND hunger in the country—largely due to limited access to healthy, fresh foods? Produce from your farm or garden helps provide access to fresh, nutritious food.
Thanks to our Durham sponsors Stone Brothers and Byrd and Naked Fruits and our partner the Durham Farmers Market! And continued thanks to our Wake partners and drop-off sites Logan Trading Company, Cary Whole Foods, and Western Wake Farmers Market.