A terrific campaign called “Plant A Row for the Hungry” (PAR), a national people-helping-people program, encourages gardeners to grow a little extra and donate the produce to local soup kitchens and food pantries serving homeless and hungry in their local communities.
PAR was begun in Anchorage, Alaska, in 1995 by Jeff Lowenfels, of GardenComm, formerly called the Garden Writers Association (GWA). In one of his columns Lowenfels asked his readers to “Plant A Row” of vegetables for an Anchorage soup kitchen known as Bean’s Cafe. Because of the program’s success, he introduced it to GWA as a national program.
As an organization, PAR provides direction to volunteer committees that promote gardening at the local level. They also assist in coordinating the local food collection systems and monitor donations to food agencies.
PAR estimates each pound of produce supplements four meals. The Garden Writer’s website, gardencomm.org/PAR, reports that since 1995, over 20 million pounds of produce donated by American gardeners has provided over 80 million meals. All this was achieved without government oversight—just people helping people.
Texas has several chapters. Here are the cities and contacts:
• Austin: karlakgarcia@aol.com
• Canyon Lake: hitexplanter@yahoo.com
• Celina: njoslin@verizon.net
• Coppell: avanhooz@ci.coppell.tx.us
• Denton County: qpeterson@gmail.com
• Harris County: carol@flourishandbits.com
• San Antonio: happygardenertx@sbcglobal.net
While Spur and surrounding communities do not have a chapter, gardeners can still follow the spirit of the campaign by helping those who are in need as prices continue to escalate. Successful PAR campaigns have been backed by a media employer. Volunteers can come from interested individuals, Master Gardeners, community gardeners, garden clubs and nurseries.
The Garden Writer’s Association established a 501(c)(3) charity, GWA Foundation. The foundation is managed by Garden-Comm. There are several ways individuals can become involved with the Plant a Row campaign. For more information on the program or how individuals can help, contact Jeff Lowenfels at gardenerjeff@me.com or email gardens@foodwellalliance.org. More information about GardenComm can be found at infor@ gardencomm.org.
Ellen Peffley Harp, a retired professor of horticulture at Texas Tech University, writes about gardening for several Texas newspapers.
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