Sunday, July 12, 2015

Donating Food

I've been wanting to do this for ages.

Every gardener knows the joy and burden of a bumper crop.  First it's all joy.  "I can't wait to eat those!"  "Wow these are gorgeous!" "Let's Share with family and friends!" "Let's preserve some for a future time and bottle up summer!" Then, at some point, it turns on you.  Friends and family start eye rolling when you offer them more from the garden.  Joggers start running on the other side of the street to avoid being chucked with a cucumber.  It gets bad.

But the plant is still producing, and in the back of my head I keep thinking about all the people who don't have access to fresh food and desperately need it.  Meanwhile, I'm 'burdened' with food.

To be honest, as much as I have wanted to pass on produce to those who need it, I've never made it happen before.  Part of my inertia was that I didn't know where to take it.   Some people give it to churches.  However, for my own reasons, I wanted to support a secular organization, but most don't take perishable food. Finally I found one that does.  (http://www.yelp.com/biz/the-health-trust-food-basket-san-jose)

Once I made contact with the organization, I was so excited to pick the day's crops.   We brought 17 cucumbers, a gallon bag of green beans, a zucchini and some tomatoes. I was also excited to incorporate Max into the process of making the donation.  We had a great talk about what it means to be hungry and not have access to good, healthy food, especially when one is sick.  

The folks at the center were so sweet and friendly and appreciative.  The center was gorgeous, clean, with crates of pristine looking fruits and vegetables.

It was a really great experience for both of us and I will now look forward to going there for seasons to come to share our (comparatively tiny) harvest with our community.



No comments:

Post a Comment