Grow a Row for the Food Bank

Credit: lonecellotheory/Flickr

A couple of years ago, I had so much zucchini in my garden that I tested 26 zucchini recipes – everything from Zucchini-Crusted Pizza to Double Chocolate Zucchini Cake.

Sadly, while I was working through this glut, families across our province dependent upon food banks would have been grateful for one serving of any vegetable at their table. Often, food bank recipients suffer from health problems resulting from a lack of fresh produce.

Food banks traditionally have appealed for non-perishables, however this is shifting now thanks to the efforts of The Canadian Association of Food Banks, the Composting Council of Canada and Canadian members of the Garden Writers Association of America, who have teamed up to create the campaign Plant a Row • Grow a Row.

The result last year was “390,000 pounds of fresh produce donated across the country,” says Brian Minter, who co-chairs this non-funded crusade of “people helping people.” Still, he says, hunger is on the upswing and the need is greater by the day.

“There is a finite amount of money that people are able to donate, but there seems to be an infinite amount of zucchini!” says Claude Ledoux, co-coordinator of the New West Plant a Row • Grow a Row Program.

“If every household in our province donated just one pound of produce during the growing season, every British Columbian using food banks would have fresh produce each week for almost six months of the year.”

To find out more about Plant a Row • Grow a Row, check out www.growarow.org or call toll-free 1-877-571-GROW.