Gardeners encouraged to grow extra produce for food banks

People stuck at home are doing more home gardening, while local food banks are running out of fresh produce, due to the economic hardships resulting from the coronavirus pandemic. 

Belvedere Elementary School environmental education teacher Stacey Evers put those two trends to together to launch Grow a Row FC, a program that encourages local gardeners to grow some extra produce to donate to food pantries. 

“In the midst of a public health emergency and economic emergency, we’re seeing that food banks and food pantries are really getting slammed,” Evers says. 

“Grow a Row is a way to get fresh produce to people. It’s easy for gardeners to plant a little extra to help fill in the gap,” she says. “Even a little bit really helps.”

Home gardeners, people with plots at community gardens, and school gardens at Belvedere, Beech Tree and Fairview elementary schools are participating in Grow a Row. Other schools are invited to join. 

In addition to a network of 45 gardeners, Grow a Row has volunteers that help pick up and deliver produce to a food banks, such as Food for Others and the ACCA food pantry in Annandale.

Grow a Row also offers gardening mentors that help novice gardeners figure where to put a garden in their yard and what kind of plants would grow well in their soil. 

Related story: Annandale food pantry needs donations

The program has been approved by the Master Gardener programs based at Green Spring Gardens and the Merrifield Garden Center. Master Gardeners can earn points for serving as Grow a Row mentors. 

Evers oversees the garden club at Belvedere Elementary School, serves on the Fairfax Food Council and co-chairs the group’s Urban Agriculture Working Group, which bought $400 worth of seeds to give to gardeners and school gardens. She is a member of chairs the Falls Church City Environmental Sustainability Council.

So far, Evers says, Grow a Row has donated about seven pounds of produce a week. But that’s mostly greens and herbs. When the summer crops – tomatoes, cucumbers, squash, and melons – come in, the yield will be higher. 

To join Grow a Row, visit the group’s website and click on “contact” or scroll to the bottom of the page.