One of my frequent bicycling routes takes me by a local food bank. Over the years as I pedal by in the morning, I’ve seen the line of cars increase while waiting for the 10 am food bank opening. Lines of a half block or more were common during the age of Covid (2021-2022).

Lately, the line of cars has not only increased in length, it’s now 2 lanes of traffic stretching down the road waiting for a bag or two of food. Fortunately, the road widens out as it approaches the food bank, and the employees there have adopted the Dutch Brothers Coffee / In-and-Out Hamburger traffic facilitating tactic of walking the lines of cars, and getting the information they need (I’m still trying to figure out what Dutch Brothers is putting in their $6+ coffee drinks that brings in such a large crowd. Is it the sugar?).

The number of households living paycheck to paycheck has risen dramatically - up to two-thirds of all households in the U.S. living on the edge - according to one report. There’s more hurt on the way because of recent job losses due to AI, governmental shutdown of services, increased food costs due to tariffs, housing costs, and all the other reasons that you don’t want to be reading about in a gardening column.

GARDENERS CAN HELP

Still, gardeners can help out their neighbors by donating their excess backyard produce - vegetables and fruit - to a nearby food bank or food pantry. For example, right now in late October, here in USDA Zone 9 (and I know I am not alone in this bounty), there’s a lot of sweet peppers waiting to be harvested - definitely more than we can eat or process into relish. And what are those bright orange orbs staring at me from that tree outside my window? Oh yeah, Fuyu persimmons, also more than we can eat or dehydrate, that will be ready to harvest in a week or two. Definitely, these are the prime mid-Autumn candidates for transporting to the local food bank. Coming up in winter, it will be the cornucopia of citrus - oranges, mandarins, lemons - that will be heading to the food bank, along with fresh greens.

Don’t know where you’re nearest food bank is located? Go to AmpleHarvest.org, and find the food banks in your area. It’s quick, easy, and as far as I can tell in my own area, accurate. Your local food bank would probably welcome your donation of healthy, homegrown food (always check first).

In this week’s newsletter podcast (above), Gary Oppenheimer, the founder of AmpleHarvest.org, talks about the need for more, fresh, wholesome foods getting into the hands (and mouths) of those who can’t afford to eat healthy, but want to. Give it a listen, or read the transcript, below. Thanks.

There’s no paywall on today’s newsletter/podcast episode, because that would be counterproductive to helping get your excess garden harvest to the hungry. Still, thank you for your paid subscription to Beyond the Garden Basics!

TRANSCRIPT Interview with Gary Oppenheimer of AmpleHarvest.org

(recorded in 2020)

Farmer Fred:

[0:00 ] Every day in every corner of the United States, children and adults are worrying about finding enough food to put on the dinner table while thousands of pounds of food are being thrown away from backyard gardens, from small farms. Millions of Americans are unable to get enough fresh food to maintain proper health. The United States has a malnourished population that needs more than processed foods in order to thrive. So many incredible food banks, pantries, and other hunger organizations are working tirelessly to alleviate hunger in our communities, but they consistently lack in donations of fresh produce. Luckily, you can help. By making regular donations of unused fresh produce to your local food pantry, you can be a part of the solution to increase the health of people in your neighborhood. And you can donate food that you grow or food that you buy. It’s easy.

Farmer Fred:

[0:55 ] The trick is finding the food pantry nearest you, and you can do that through an incredible site called AmpleHarvest.org. We’re talking with Gary Oppenheimer. He’s with AmpleHarvest.org. He’s the founder. It’s a unique nationwide resource that is eliminating the waste of food, the outcome being a reduction in hunger and malnutrition, along with an improved environment. There’s something like 42 million Americans who grow food in home gardens, community gardens, and their small farmers as well, who could easily donate their excess harvest to one of over 8,600 registered local food pantries spread across all 50 states. And Gary, I want to tell you, first of all, about my experience with your website, ampleharvest.org. There is a page there where you can go and find the food pantry nearest you. And I set a search of 15-mile radius around my house. And up popped, I’m counting, 14 food pantries I never knew existed, including one that is within walking distance. And it’s amazing how easy it could be for people who have an excess of tomatoes or squash or peppers or melons or fruit, where to take it to and how convenient that is. What was your inspiration, Gary, for starting ampleharvest.org?

Gary Oppenheimer:

[2:17 ] That’s a great question, actually. There are two things, two pieces of inspiration. One was I grew up hearing, “don’t waste food”. My grandparents always told me, you know, finish what’s on your plate. Kids are starving in Europe. So not wasting food was always inculcated into me. But as an adult and a master gardener, I was growing more food than I can use, and I couldn’t, I didn’t want to go to waste. My wife said, you can’t forget any more of this stuff in the house.

Gary Oppenheimer:

[2:42 ] And I struggled to find a place to donate the food to. It turns out I found a battered woman shelter in my town. I’m in Northern New Jersey. But when I had gone on Google to find out where their food pantries, Google said the nearest one was 25 miles away in another city. And I had an epiphany in March of 09. And I realized, wait a minute, this is an information problem. This is not a food problem. People aren’t hungry because America doesn’t have enough food. We actually throw away half the produce, never gets consumed. The problem gardeners across America have always had was miss and missing information. The misinformation was what we were all told at food drives, that you can only donate jars or cans or boxes, but no fresh food. We gardeners took away from that. You can’t donate the extra tomatoes. The missing information was where is a food pantry and what’s a good day of the week and time of day to donate it. When I realized that this was the information problem, I realized the solution was a web-based, an internet-based program that would both educate gardeners about their capacity, that they can indeed donate food.

Gary Oppenheimer:

[3:50 ] And to where to donate it near them, and the optimum day of the week and time of day. And that timing is super important because if a food pantry, for argument’s sake, was distributing food to hungry families on Sunday afternoons, the ideal time for you to bring it in is Sunday morning, which means the ideal time for you to harvest is either Sunday morning or Saturday night. So the food would go from your garden to the food pantry to a hungry family in hours, Number one, the food pantry didn’t have to buy refrigeration. And number two, the hungry family was getting food fresher than you and I can buy in a supermarket. It’s truly garden fresh food. And the whole thing came together for me in a one four-hour session on my computer. And seven weeks later, with the help of two volunteers, May 18, 2009, Ample Harvest Road rolled out. And it’s been growing in reach and impact ever since.

Farmer Fred:

[4:46 ] We’re going to be using a couple of terms here that people may get confused. I find it confusing as well. Maybe you can explain it. We will be talking about food banks and food pantries. What is the difference?

Gary Oppenheimer:

[4:57 ] Well, this is a fun question. All right. For most of America, for all of America, a food bank is a large industrial warehouse type operation, around 200 of them in America. They’re part of the Feeding America Network. These are large warehouses where large amounts of food come in and large amounts of food are then redistributed out to the local programs where hungry families go. So those local programs where hungry families go, there are around 33,500 across America, are usually called a food pantry and in some states a food cupboard or food shelf or food closet. The exception, as far as I know, was Oregon and Washington where those local programs are also called food banks. And you said a little bit ago that I think in Sacramento, they’re also sometimes called food banks. So in the vernacular, in the common language of food banks where a hungry family gets food, but in the real system, there’s a distinction. And the reason I had to create ampleharvest.org was because when the food went from a food drive to a food bank or a food pantry, it took too long. But when it went from a food drive or my garden, for that matter, to a food pantry, it could happen in 15 minutes. So this was an architectural discussion. This is great for a linguistic nerd, but it’s... If people want to use the word food bank, that’s perfectly fine. But I’ll use the word food pantry just to be more correct.

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