Food For Thought
An estimated 100 billion pounds of food, enough to totally eliminate hunger, is thrown away annually in the United States.
It does not have to be this way - and you can help.
Your support of the AmpleHarvest.org Campaign helps many more food pantries receive fresh produce - improving community health while also helping the environment.
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About AmpleHarvest.org
The Idea
While more than 50 million Americans live in food insecure homes (including a quarter of all children under the age of six), more than 40 million Americans grow fruit, vegetables herbs and nuts in home gardens - often more than they can use, preserve or give to friends.
It doesn't have to be that way.
The Opportunity
Struggling to feed their families, many Americans, both those chronically economically challenged as well as those now impacted by the economic downturn have come to rely on the more than 33,500 food pantries (also called food shelves, food closets, food cupboards or food banks in some areas) across America to help feed their families. These food pantries, relying on donated and purchased foods, almost never have fresh produce and instead rely on canned or processed produce shipped from across the country at significant cost, both economic and environmental.
At the same time, millions of home and community gardeners nationwide with an abundant harvest do not know that they can share their harvest, do not know how to share their harvest and do not know where to share their harvest. AmpleHarvest.org solves that for them.
The Vision
AmpleHarvest.org envisions an America where millions of gardeners eliminate malnutrition and hunger in their own community.
The Mission
AmpleHarvest.org diminishes hunger in America by educating, encouraging and enabling gardeners to donate their excess harvest to the needy in their community instead of allowing it to rot in the garden. There are no costs to the food pantries or the gardeners for use of AmpleHarvest.org.
The Message
A number of America's problem could be diminished or even solved if everyone valued our resources, especially fresh food, as the treasure it really is. Our message to America is:
No Food Left Behind
The Impact
Currently, 4,787 food pantries across all 50 states are registered to recevie a sustainable and recurring supply of freshly harvested, locally grown food (many for the first time) from area growers - for free!.
In August 2010 (mid harvest) when AmpleHarvest.org was only 15 months old, a survey of then registered food pantries incdicated that more than 3 million pounds of freshly harvested locally grown produce had been donated to food pantries.
Millions of pantry clients can feed their family fresh food instead of food packaged with added salt and sugar thereby reducing the likelyhood of diet related illness such as diabetes, high blood pressure and obesity.
Children, now at greater risk of obesity then ever before, are exposed to fresh produce with many learning for the first time that apples do not normally come pre-sliced in cellophane, peas come in pods and not cans and carrots are normally sweet and crunchy.
Gardeners across America enjoy the satisfaction of knowing that they are helping their neighbors in need by reaching into their backyard instead of their back pocket.
Families are introduced to new varieties of food they may have had no prior access to.
The carbon footprint of the pantries is reduced as locally sourced food (without packaging or cans trucked across the country that need to be disposed of) is used.
The community waste stream is reduced (taxes too!) as excess food is donated instead of being thrown away thereby also reducing methane emissions (a climate change gas with 20 times the impact of CO2) at trash dumps
All this occurs at no cost to the donor, the community or America.
Collaborations
The AmpleHarvest.org Campaign has been working closely with many organzations as part of our effort to help more people learn that the solution to hunger in America is in their backyard. A sampling of these collaborations are:
Winner of the Glynwood Wave of the Future 2011 award for innovation and leadership in sustainable agriculture and regional food systems.
Collaborations with a number of organizations such as Campus Kitchens, the National Gardening Association and the Green Education Foundation are focused on helping more children and teenagers learn about healthy eating and have or create access to fresh produce.
Working together with DinnerGarden.org, we are turning people to are today in need of assistance into people who can tomorrow help their neighbors in need.
Working with AARP, we are working to educate, encourage and enable more gardeners to donate excess food from gardens to their neighbors in need.
AmpleHarvest.org and the Veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) have a joint campaign focused on helping more people become aware of the impact of donated fresh food on America's veterans, all to many of whom need the help of local food pantries to help feed their families.
The US Department of Agriculture has been helping to promote AmpleHarvest.org to America's 95,000 Master Gardeners.
The National Council of Churches have been working together to help more food pantries housed in local churches become aware of and register at AmpleHarvest.org.
The Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) have been working together to help education Americans on the environmental impact of wasted food.
The Green Education Foundation and AmpleHarvest.org are working together to encourage children to learn to grow food to be donated to pantries as part of the "Plant With A Purpose" program.
The Organization
AmpleHarvest.org Inc. is a 501c3 not-for-profit charity incorporated in the State of New Jersey.
In the spirit of doing the greatest good while creating the smallest environmental impact possible, AmpleHarvest.org operates as a virtual enterprise - everyone involved works from their own location of choice and at times of their choosing.
The Board of Directors for AmpleHarvest.org Inc. consists of:
Gary Oppenheimer
AmpleHarvest.org Founder
Executive Director
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Gary Oppenheimer, a CNN Hero, TEDx speaker, Master Gardener, Rutgers Environmental Steward, Huffington Post's "Greatest Person of the Day", Huffington Post's 2011 Game Changer, winner of the Russell Berrie Foundation's "Making A Difference" award, winner of the Glynwood 2011 "Wave of the Future" award and founder of the AmpleHarvest.org Campaign now makes his home in the mountains of northern New Jersey after having lived on a boat on the Hudson River in Manhattan since 1978.
After graduating from college with a degree in psychology, he promptly lost all interest in the field and instead became one of the early geeks in the personal computing arena (he soldered a computer together in 1976 - he still has it but is now afraid to now power it up) and designed a prototype email program for a mini-computer in 1977 while working for a New York bank. Although it never went any further, he was "hooked" on computers.
In 1985, MCI asked Gary to help them sell and support the then fledging MCI Mail electronic mail service. Within a few years, he became their largest global sales agent (including producing what is believe to be the first "ezine" - published from 1985 to 1996) - while working from a home office located on the boat.
In the early 2000's after buying a home deep in the woods in a rural northern New Jersey and planting an orchard and garden, Gary realized he actually needed to learn how to grow things and became a Master Gardener. A year later, he completed the Rutgers Environmental Stewards program.
Over the next several years, he expanded his home gardens, became a lecturer, an environmental commissioner in his town, advocated for region wide watershed preservation laws and became the director of a community garden.
Aware of the increasing hunger problem in America and, in 2009, after seeing the amount of wasted food in the community garden as well as other gardens around the country, he created the AmpleHarvest.org Campaign - a nationwide effort to enable America's 40+ million home gardeners who grow food to be able to easily find a local food pantry eager for their excess garden bounty.
Backed by the USDA, Google Inc. the National Gardening Association, the National Council of Churches and many faith and service organizations, AmpleHarvest.org is now helping 4,787 food pantries be accessable to local gardeners and other donors.
Gary has presented AmpleHarvest.org to USDA People's Garden Initiative Conference in Washington DC, was interviewed live by CNN anchor Ali Velshi after being introduced on Larry King Live as a CNN Hero, has spoken at Wharton's Social Impact Conference and at food bank conferences, did a webinar for 100,000 invited USDA employees on gardening and hunger, has twice lectured at the Bergen LEADS program and has been interviewed numerous time by both print and electronic (local and network) media outlets nationwide.
He enjoys long distance cycling, boating, hiking, farming (chickens for eggs and vegetables), attacking challenges of all sorts, pondering unusual questions and discussing political/social issues at a neighborhood tavern with people who generally don't agree with him.
Gary is a firm believer in the notion that to do the impossible, you must first believe it isn't.
Gary is the proud father of a University of Connecticut Honors Senior (also a nationally ranked bicycle racer) and is married to a remarkable woman who has put up with him all these years.
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Jennifer Gilmore
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Jennifer Gilmore oversees the strategic growth and program development of Feeding America San Diego (FASD), San Diego's largest distributor of donated food.
Gilmore's passion for hunger relief has given her experience working in food banking for more than a decade. She previously worked at the Community Food Bank of Tucson and the San Diego Food Bank, serving as a volunteer coordinator, agency relations manager, and fundraiser. Gilmore joined FASD in 2007 as the director of operations and the organization's second full-time employee.
As executive director, Gilmore is spearheading efforts to distribute 30 million pounds of nutritious food annually by 2015.
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Joe Lamp'l
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Joe Lamp'l is an industry leader in environmental media and the 2011 recipient of The American Horticultural Society's, B.Y. Morrison Communication Award, which recognizes effective and inspirational communication-through print, radio, television, and/or online media-that advances public interest and participation in horticulture.
His infatuation for horticulture and sustainability is evident to a national audience through his books, including The Green Gardener's Guide, syndicated column, and as host of the popular series, Fresh from the Garden on DIY Network and GardenSMART on PBS. Today, Joe combines his television experience and expertise of gardening, environmental stewardship and passion for living a more eco-friendly life, as creator, host and executive producer of the award-winning national public television series, Growing a Greener World, named by the Garden Writers Association as Best New Digital Product, including television for 2011, while also taking top honors for television writing.
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Shana Starobin
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Shana Starobin is a PhD student in Environmental Science and Policy at Duke's Nicholas School of the Environment and the 2011 Kenan Graduate Instructor in Ethics. With academic and professional interests in institutional design and social innovation, her research focuses on the role of business, NGOs, and civil society in fostering alternative modes of governance and institutions for addressing complex socio-economic and ecological problems, such as the private regulation of the global food supply chain.
Prior to pursuing her PhD, Shana worked extensively in the areas of sustainable development, social entrepreneurship, and civic engagement internationally and in the U.S. She serves as a senior adviser to the Institute for Sustainable Development (ISD), a Durham-based non-profit assisting smaller enterprises in their sustainability efforts, as well as the Duke Microfinance Leadership Initiative (DMLI), of which she is also a co-founder.
Shana holds two Masters degrees from Duke in Environmental Management and Public Policy as well as an AB magna cum laude in History and Science from Harvard College.
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David Watson-Hallowell
Treasurer
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David has played a key role in the growth and development of The Rensselaerville Institute's outcome tools and guidance since 1990. Major project engagements have included delivering the Institute' outcome related products with government, foundations and a variety of non-profit organizations in a variety of program areas. Clients include
- NYC Department of Health, Human Resources Administration, Head Start
- Blue Cross Blue Shield Foundation of North Carolina
- United Kingdom Department of Health
- The Staten Island Foundation
- Brooklyn Community Services
- National Association of Developmental Disabilities Planning Councils
- First Five Riverside
- Appalachian Regional Commission
He has led training programs throughout the country and the UK and currently leads the Community Sparkplug program efforts in rural towns across Appalachia in Mississippi and Ohio. He has a diverse range of experience in presenting, training and building core capacity for staff members to increase their effectiveness.
Dave is the co-founder of Sustainable West Milford non-profit dedicated to creating a sustainable community. He has been certified as an Educator for Sustainability by the Cloud Institute for Sustainability.
Dave's educational background is in psychology and he holds a Master of Arts in Psychology from The Graduate Faculty in New York.
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Wendy Worden
Capacity Building
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As a professional event planner and fundraising consultant, Wendy has been an integral part of the growth of non-profit organizations such as Habitat for Humanity and Alpine Learning Group. Ms. Worden is the President of Calypso Creative LLC, a full-service planning firm that empowers organizations to deploy their human and capital resources and ensure that their development plans are aligned with the organization's vision and mission.
A graduate of the Bergen LEADS class of 2010, Wendy is actively engaged in nurturing future leaders and creating opportunities for professionals to connect to non-profit organizations that are in need of their expertise. As a Board Member of AmpleHarvest.org, Ms. Worden has been actively involved in providing financial and human resource support to the organization and believes wholeheartedly in AmpleHarvest.org's ability to change the landscape of hunger in America.
Wendy graduated from Boston University with a BA in Business Administration and has been involved in event planning in both the corporate and non-profit sectors for the past 20 years. When returning to the workplace after a hiatus to raise her three children, Ms. Worden recognized her desire to "do good" and is focused on inspiring individuals to actively engage in changing our world for the better.
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AmpleHarvest.org Development
Everyone involved in the creation of AmpleHarvest.org has donated their time and talent.
The AmpleHarvest.org Campaign exists due to the generosity and support of the below people and organizations who help to fund, design, create, critique, test and promote AmpleHarvest.org
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Site Development
Support/Guidance/Testing & Review
Promotion
Special Thanks to
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AmpleHarvest.org Inc. greatly appreciates sustaining grants and donations to help fund the ongoing operational and staffing costs for the AmpleHarvest.org Campaign. Please click here to learn how you can help AmpleHarvest.org help your community.
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