Why you should donate your garden produce
The US is currently experiencing the highest rate of food insecurity in a decade; according to a recent USDA report, 47.4 million Americans currently face food insecurity. Gaining access to fresh, organic, healthy fruits and vegetables can be especially difficult if you're experiencing food insecurity.
Depending on your geographic area, food pantries tend to offer nonperishable goods (think boxed, packaged, and canned food). Lack of access to healthy, fresh food can contribute to health inequities.
Gardeners tend to find themselves overwhelmed by late August. Even as experienced preservers, with the volume of food we freeze, dehydrate, ferment, and can, we find ourselves with more summer produce than we could possibly use or give to our friends and families.
In the US, approximately 40% of all food is wasted; the last thing you want to do is spend the time, money, and energy to grow something with your own hands, only to have it go into the compost or garbage bin. Food waste emits methane gas and contributes to the climate crisis.
We can’t solve food insecurity with backyard gardens, but they can become an important part of the food system. We can make a distinct difference in the communities we live in. Backyard gardens can help to reduce the carbon cost of food transportation and waste, and can provide fresh, culturally appropriate food that can positively impact the lives of others.
In 2024, gardeners in the Fresh Food Connect community donated 50,000 pounds of backyard produce to local hunger relief organizations. Since we started our garden in 2020, we’ve donated 687 pounds of produce back into the local food system.
three tips to maximize your garden’s community impact
Understand the demographics: gaining an understanding of who is in your community is a good first step. We love to grow and eat things like zucchini and pumpkins, but those are not ingredients familiar to all cultures. We are avid travelers and have an appreciation of cuisines that span the world over, but not everyone enjoys delving into regional cooking. Having a basic familiarity with the vegetables, fruits, and herbs commonly used by various cultural groups, and understanding which groups are represented in your community can help maximize your garden’s impact. Food pantries are great resources if you’re not sure where to start; you can often find lists of frequently requested items. We grow specific varieties of tomatoes to donate - Early Girl, Roma, and Celebrity are all varieties that most closely resemble what can be found in a grocery store. We love growing green and white tomatoes, but we tend to donate those less as they’re not as familiar to non-gardeners and chefs. Herbs are also something we frequently donate.
Plan for the surplus: we start each year by creating a robust garden plan. This starts not by looking at our available space, but by scanning our preserves cookbooks and evaluating what’s left in the pantry come springtime. We evaluate what we want to cook, then plan our garden around it. Having an idea of how many jars of canned goods we went through the previous year helps determine how many jars (and thus plants) we’ll want to account for. We typically choose varieties that are going to be very productive; seed packets often include yield information if you’re unsure. Most food pantries accept green tomatoes, which can be ripened indoors. Rather than scrambling to find green tomato canning recipes when our frost date hits, we plan to donate those in advance.
Set a donation goal/schedule/location: start with a small, attainable goal (i.e. 20 pounds) and a basic donation schedule (i.e. drop-off on Wednesday nights). Knowing what type of produce is accepted and which day(s) our local hunger relief organization picks up allows us to establish a harvest schedule around our donations to maximize freshness. We typically don’t have much to donate in June and July when the garden is just getting going, so we plan our schedule around the heavier months of August, September, and October. We try to donate about 20% of our produce each year. Finding out what organizations accept donations, if they provide pickup services, and what their schedule is will ensure your produce has a place to go before the season begins.