FORT FRANCES—It’s harvest time for local vegetable gardens but so far the hampers are empty for the “Plant a Row, Grow a Row” food drive co-ordinated by the local Salvation Army and Northwestern Health Unit.
“It’s a really good program and I’m surprised that not more people have actually participated in it,” said Stacy Gosman, who is with the Salvation Army.
“We just haven’t gotten anything so far, and last year we didn’t get anything, either, so we really need to spread the word a little bit more and get people informed about it,” she noted.
As part of the Northwestern Health Unit’s food security and healthy eating program, “Plant a Row, Grow a Row” was created last year to encourage people to grow and donate excess vegetables from their gardens.
“The concept is just trying to help our local food banks, and promote food security and nutritious and healthy eating,” explained Becky Holden, a health educator with the health unit here.
Yet for the two years it’s been running, the program both here and in Kenora has seen a lack of donations, noted Holden.
“We’re not sure if it’s just the late growing season, which is hard for timing, or getting the word out [and] getting people on board,” she remarked.
She hopes the next month will be a big one for people’s gardens—and the time when residents will start to have excess food to donate.
Many local residents have large gardens, said Gosman, but often end up composting and throwing away the excess vegetables they aren’t able to use.
“Instead of doing that, just send it over to the Salvation Army and then we put it into our weekly hampers,” she explained, adding the food bank serves about 30 families on average every month.
Donating extra vegetables also is a cheaper way for people to support the food bank since no trip to the grocery store is needed, said Holden.
It also means locally-grown, less processed food are being given out instead of the canned goods and non-perishable food items the food bank usually distributes with its hampers.
“We don’t put [fresh fruit and vegetables] usually into the hampers,” noted Gosman. “We put more non-perishable food items into the hamper.
“So it’s important for families to get their fruits and vegetables, and this is a really good way to have the community involved in helping with these hampers.”
The fresh fruit and vegetables also would come at a time when the food bank’s regular non-perishable food supply is lower.
“Around this time of year, we get a lot less than we usually do than say around Christmas time,” said Gosman.
“And even in the fall we get a lot because the different schools hold food drives where they collect food for us and they box it, and that doesn’t really happen in the summertime.”
The health unit provided seeds during the spring, and container planting workshops with the Sunset Country Métis Association and kids’ program. Even if people don’t like gardening, making a contribution could be as easy as planting a tomato plant in a pot, said Holden.
Located at 316 Victoria Ave., the Salvation Army food bank is open Mondays from 10 a.m.-noon and 1-3 p.m. It will be accepting produce right into the fall.
For more information about the “Plant a Row, Grow a Row” program, contact the Salvation Army food bank at 274-3871 or the Northwestern Health Unit at 274-9827.
(Fort Frances Times)
Fort Frances Times
Local News from Across the Rainy River District
