WORT 89.9FM Madison

Volunteers Needed for Food Pantry Garden

The growing season isn't over, and September is the month to pick peppers, pull beans, and dig up sweet potatoes. While that might be a manageable solo job in your own backyard, a local produce supplier is asking for your harvesting help. WORT reporter Christine Driscoll headed to Forward Garden last week. Image Courtesy Christine Driscoll / WORT News

Broadcast on:: 25 Sep 2024
Audio Format:: other

If you've been feeling the need to touch grass, what about touching a tomato? So we're harvesting tomatoes today, but tomorrow there's going to be a whole another, you know, 50 pounds of tomatoes to harvest. This is Matt Lechmeyer, the forward garden farm manager for the Madison area food pantry gardens. And our goal is to distribute the highest quality produce we can so that the pantries aren't reliant on those expired vegetables from supermarkets. So we harvest when it's fully ripe and we distribute the same day to the pantries that have distribution events that day as well and so it's getting to people the same day it's harvested. That's something we work really hard to achieve and it requires ongoing harvesting of those things that are ripe. And with the warm temperatures we've had, things ripen very quickly. Madison area of food pantry gardens is an organization that grows, harvests, and donates produce to roughly 30 outlets, including food pantries, schools, and churches. And the farm is a beautiful place to spend time. I got to forward garden on a Tuesday night right as golden hour hit. Forward garden is one of 10 gardens in their network. Driving in, I passed by an old white and stone barn and parked in a field that looks out onto a nature conservancy full of old trees and rolling hills. I immediately saw a red-tailed hawk land at a nearby field. If you commute home on US 14, I highly recommend a detour to help out your neighbors. The organization needs more volunteers. The harvest is coming in just as most of the garden's regular volunteers are getting pulled into busy schedules. Typically, when school starts people get very busy, especially if they have kids school-age, with sports, with school, with their regular routines. And there's fewer people that show up at our open sessions at all of our gardens. And it's also when all these crops that we've been tending for months ripen and become ready to harvest. It's also when we need to start cleaning up for the winter so that we're ready with a vacant field to prep for spring planting. And so we are usually short-handed in September and October when we have about two thirds of our crops still left to harvest. Without volunteers, the produce might not get harvested in time for delivery. And it is a significant amount of produce. Last year, we were able to grow 39,000 pounds from this property. Collectively, it was something like 119,000 pounds that we grew or gleaned from local farms. This year, we're at something like 17,000 pounds from this property. And I think we're legging a little bit from last year because our watermelons are just ripening now. And we've already, this time last year, we had 7,000 pounds already harvested and distributed. Of just watermelon? Just watermelon. Yeah, it was a great year for watermelons last year. Okay, so maybe watermelon is not as much a summer fruit as like a fall fruit? It should have been earlier. I mean, it's like 110 days to ripen. You planted late May and so you just do the math and you should be able to harvest it before mid-September. We're just a little bit late this year. Okay, so if folks want more time with watermelons, they should come out? Yes, please. Other efforts to provide fresh produce to pantries usually involves gathering leftover produce from farmers markets or grocery stores. But the variety was limited because not everything transports well. And so our effort is focused on those things that the pantries don't have an adequate supply of already. Culturally appropriate produce is what we refer to it as. Examples of those would be tomatillos, cilantro, bok choy, bitter melons, egg plants, sweet potatoes, collared greens, about 30 other things that I'm just forgetting off the top of my head. The Madison area food pantry gardens have been able to grow produce based on what clients want, not just what's left over. And to decide what they grow, the organization asked clients at pantries what they'd like. We administered a survey to the clients that used various pantries that we support on an annual basis and they give us direct feedback about what they would like to receive more of and also what format they want to receive it in. And so we're moving towards being able to lightly process some of our vegetables so that it's in a format that's easier to consume for the end user. Right now it's just we harvest it, we package it and then we deliver it. But in the future, I mean we might have commercial kitchen space that we could use to do some like steamable bags or or pickling or canning some sort of preserving so that the people at the pantry getting it off the shelf can much more easily and quickly consume it. Just like remove as many hurdles as possible that people encounter when trying to consume healthy produce. And the group has removed hurdles for volunteering too. You can show up to any of their open sessions on Tuesdays, Wednesdays or Thursdays. Check the hours and address before you go of course. And when you get there, you can be as social as you want. I was there at the same time as a few other volunteers. Some folks weren't that chatty but for others, talking was a bonus. Here's Mark who started coming during the pandemic. And we were instructed to stay away from people and basically not socialize or do anything fun. And this garden opened up and here was a way that you could get outside, do some work and benefit people. And so that whole package of good exercise, a worthy cause, it made me want to do it. Reporting for WORT News, I'm Christine Driscoll.