Help Us Help Your Community
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AmpleHarvest.org - Information for United Way Chapters
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One out of six Americans needs food assistance, but can't get fresh produce from the local food pantry.
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Millions of American homeowners grow more food in their backyard gardens than they can possibly use.
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It Doesn't Have to Be This Way! |
The AmpleHarvest.org campaign diminishes hunger in America by helping backyard gardeners share their excess garden produce with neighborhood food pantries. |
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The AmpleHarvest.org Campaign is a nationwide effort to diminish hunger in America by enabling millions of backyard gardeners to easily find a local food pantry eager for their excess garden bounty.
Currently there are 4,787 food pantries across all 50 states registered on AmpleHarvest.org, and more are signing up every day.
Your United Way office can help diminish hunger in your state by reaching out to the food pantries in your communities and encouraging them to register on AmpleHarvest.org (its free!). Once registered, gardeners will be able to easily find a food pantry when they start harvesting their crops. You can download a flier for distribution to the pantries by clicking here.
AmpleHarvest.org has received support and backing from Google.com, the US Department of Agriculture, Rotary Int'l, VFW, the National Gardening Association as well as numerous faith organizations. It is available to food pantries and gardeners at no charge.
Additional information is available at our Frequently Asked Questions page, by emailing gary@AmpleHarvest.org or calling 973-409-4093.
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When AmpleHarvest.org web site was first released in May of 2009, approximately 38 million Americans were listed as food insecure (defined as people who either do not have enough or are at real risk for not having enough food for their family).
According to US government statistics released only six months later, that number increased to nearly 49 million people, or one out of every six Americans; this despite the fact that America looses/wastes almost 100 billion pounds of food a year, or about one pound per person per day according to the New York Times.
To put this in perspective, the number food insecure people in America exceeds the populations of Alaska, Arkansas, Connecticut, Delaware, Hawaii, Iowa, Idaho, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Missouri, Montana, North Dakota, Nebraska, New Hampshire, New Mexico, Nevada, Oklahoma, Oregon, Rhode Island, South Dakota, Vermont and West Virginia - added together.
These people often rely on one of the more than 33,000 local food pantries in America to help meet the nutritional needs of their families. (Note.... in some parts of the country, a food pantry is referred to as a food shelf, food closet, food cupboard or food bank)
In most communities a food pantry is typically located in a house of worship or similar community building. Usually run by volunteers, these pantries are the final distribution point for food and household items (such as toiletries, diapers, paper goods, etc.) available to those most needing it. Although they are in nearly every community in the country, people in the area who do not need assistance from the food pantry rarely where it is located.
Food pantries receive the bulk of the food they distribute from periodic deliveries provided by large regional warehouse operations called food banks. The majority of these food banks are part of a nationwide network operated by Feeding America (www.feedingamerica.org).
Unlike your local supermarket whose daily food deliveries allows it to stock and sell fresh produce, the less frequent deliveries by food banks means that only canned fruit and vegetables can usually be provided to most food pantries.
Because canned vegetables are often processed with extra salt and fruit with a sugary syrup, either of which can contribute to future health problems (high weight or blood pressure, diabetes, etc), some writers have suggested that the availability of fresh produce at food pantries through the AmpleHarvest.org Campaign may help to lower the future health care costs in America.
While 49 million Americans are food insecure, 41 million Americans, according to the National Gardening Association, grow vegetables, fruit and herbs in their backyard, rooftop, patio and window sill gardens.
A typical gardener plants their seeds or seedlings and then eagerly waits to begin the harvesting. As the growing season progresses, there will often be a far larger harvest than the gardener can use, preserve or give away to friends.
Historically, most gardeners have disposed of the excess produce, composted it, or left it to rot in their garden.
The AmpleHarvest.org Campaign web site provides these gardeners with the opportunity to instead easily find a local food pantry within a specified driving distance that is eager for their garden bounty.
A gardener overwhelmed with a bountiful harvest can go to the AmpleHarvest.org site to find pantry on the Find A Pantry page. They simply enter their home address or zip code and the number of miles they are willing to travel to a pantry.
AmpleHarvest.org displays a listing of food pantries, sorted by distance, along with a Google map.
Once the pantry has been selected, AmpleHarvest.org displays the desired day[s] of the week and time[s] of day when the pantry can accept donations. It will also show a photograph of the pantry (if provided) along with Google driving instructions from the gardeners location to the food pantry. Click here to see an example of what the gardener might see.
Gardeners who share their garden bounty with a food pantry are encouraged to email IShared@AmpleHarvest.org to let us know what and how much was donated.
Donating through AmpleHarvest.org is not limited just to backyard gardeners. Millions of Americans grow tomatoes, cucumbers, berries and other foods on their patio or rooftop. Even urban dwellers find that they can easily grow herbs (fresh chives, parsley, mint, and other herbs are particularly appreciated by pantry clients) in window sill gardens. Lastly, many food pantries use AmpleHarvest.org to list those store bought items (canned foods, paper goods, toiletries, etc.) they are most in need of, making AmpleHarvest.org helpful to shoppers as well as gardeners.
AmpleHarvest.org is an opt-in directory - only those pantries that choose to participate or are registered by their managing food bank will appear. Since most food pantries find that the garden produce is quickly taken by their clients - often within hours of delivery by the gardeners, refrigerated storage at the pantry is rarely an issue. Food pantries, almost always struggling to meet an ever growing need for food assistance, greatly appreciate the community support AmpleHarvest.org enables them to receive.
AmpleHarvest.org continues to reach out to food pantries across the nation, encouraging them to take advantage of the generosity of the local gardeners. The outreach is done through the food banks, service and faith organizations as well as social networking such as Twitter and Facebook. Several emailable and faxable informational fliers for food pantries are available here. Anyone who knows of a food pantry in their community is strongly encouraged to forward the appropriate flier to the food pantry manager for their review.
At the same time, AmpleHarvest.org continues to encourage millions of gardeners across America to visit the site to find a local food pantry and to be generous with their donations when they harvest their gardens. The outreach to the gardeners is done on the Internet (thanks to a very generous grant from Google.com), Master Gardeners nationwide, and social networking such as Twitter and Facebook. Lastly, we encourage everyone to post a one page flier available here in their local garden shop, supermarket bulletin board or in any other conspicuous location to help inform those gardeners who have not yet heard about AmpleHarvest.org.
Although many Americans are themselves suffering from economic difficulties, the AmpleHarvest.org Campaign enables gardeners to help diminish hunger in their community by reaching into their back yard instead of their back pocket.
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The AmpleHarvest.org FAQ page is divided into three sections - General Questions, Food Pantry Questions and Backyard Gardener Questions
It covers additional information not included on this page. |
| The AmpleHarvest.org has received a good deal of very positive feedback since it rolled out. A sample of these comments can be seen here and the extensive press and media coverage can be seen here. |
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Here are some ways you can help: |
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Tell a local food pantry to register at AmpleHarvest.org.
Find the food pantry in your community - possibly in a nearby house of worship, a YMCA or other civic location. Give them this flier and urge them to register ASAP. Let them know they don't need extra refrigeration and that AmpleHarvest.org is totally FREE!.
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Help others learn about AmpleHarvest.org.
Put this article in your blog or newsletter
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Help local gardeners learn to share their ample harvest.
Print this two sided flier and post it a local garden shops, nurseries, supermarket bulletin boards, etc. to help gardeners learn about the opportunity to help the hungry.
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Help publicize the AmpleHarvest.org Campaign
Ask your local media to visit this page and do a story about people in the community wanting fresh produce for their families from the local food pantry.
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Make a donation to AmpleHarvest.org
Your donations to AmpleHarvest.org (a 501c3 charity) or emailing us about foundation/corporate funding you are aware of can be most helpful.
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