 The excess harvest from a garden like this one in Bishop does not have to go to waste. Donations from a bumper crop can be donated to people in need through the “Garden for Our Community” program now accepting donations at IMACA and The Salvation Army. Photo by Mike Bodine By Mike Bodine
Register Staff 8-21-2008
It’s nearly harvest time, tomatoes are bulging and turning red and apples are falling off the tree. This bounty can sometimes become a burden when there is more produced than can be eaten or stored, and it is too much of a shame to throw away the fruits of such hard labor.
This year, excess from the garden doesn’t have to be tossed, but rather can be donated to a new program that will distribute the goods to low-income residents throughout Inyo and Mono counties.
The “Garden for Our Community” project is asking local gardeners to share any excessive bounty with those who do not have a garden or access, financially or otherwise, to grow their own.
Fruits and vegetables can be brought to Inyo-Mono Advocates for Community Action at 224 S. Main St. or the Salvation Army at 621 W. Line St. across from Dwayne’s Pharmacy, Monday through Friday from 9 a.m.-5 p.m. Produce will be distributed as a part of the IMACA and Salvation Army food programs. IMACA will distribute the fresh produce throughout local communities during its monthly food distributions.
The project has been organized by University of California Cooperative Extension, IMACA, The Salvation Army, City of Bishop, Eastern Sierra Audubon Society, Eastern Sierra Land Trust and local growers.
Yvonne Wood, Inyo-Mono farm advisor under the University of California Cooperative Extension, said they are “taking baby steps” with trying to “get the word out” to local growers that they have an outlet for their extra produce. She said there will be a small display at the Tri-County Fair and a brochure available at the weekly Saturday Farmers Market.
Wood said the fruits and vegetables will be collected and distributed in as timely a manner as possible to preserve the produce’s freshness. According to Wood, the program is in its infancy but things like canning and preserving of excess product are being looked at for the years to come. Canning and preserving is labor intensive, expensive and can be complicated especially when being distributed to the public as opposed to home use, Wood said of public health and safety codes relating to food preservation methods.
Wood said she hopes the Garden for Our Community program will evolve and grow next year to include a much anticipated community garden. A community garden would be a shared plot dedicated to growing by participating members of the community that do not have access or resources to grow a garden, or at least a couple rows of fruits or vegetables.
A pilot community garden is being initiated at the Sunrise Trailer Park and hosted by the Sunrise Rotary Club. The garden is not yet producing, but is an opportunity to discover what problems could arise with trying to manage a garden with so many different participants. Wood explained some of the issues involved with a community garden, ranging from how to parcel the garden, either by separating it into individual plots or rows or having one big operation, whether the garden will be organic or not, who will be in charge of watering and maintenance, and so on.
Wood said she is also looking at getting involved with the “Plant a Row” program, a grassroots initiative started by the Garden Writers Association in an effort to battle hunger in the U.S. The concept of the program is simple: a gardener will commit to dedicating the harvest of one row of their garden to donation. In 2005, the PAR program generated 1.5 million pounds of product that produced more than 5.5 million meals for needy recipients.
According to the 2008 Garden Writers Association Web site, approximately “25 million Americans, including nearly 10 million children, have substandard diets or must resort to seeking emergency food because they cannot afford the food they need.”
The site notes that in the past year, “the demand for hunger assistance has increased by 40 percent, and research shows that hundreds of hungry children and adults are turned away from food banks each year because of lack of resources.”
Wood added that food is not the only donation that can be made to this effort. She said plastic bags and egg cartons, used for food transportation, are always needed.
Gardeners who need help with their harvest can call Mike Murphy with IMACA at 873-8557, or Rob Lawler with the Salvation Army at 872-2124, to arrange for help to pick those tall fruit trees or thorny berry bushes.
For more information about making donations or just to donate time to the Garden for Our Community project, call Yvonne Wood at 873-7854.
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