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 Read about AmpleHarvest.org on the White House web site.
Food For Thought
Everything a reporter needs to do a thorough story on AmpleHarvest.org is located on this page.
According to government statistics, more than 50 million Americans are food insecure.
A National Gardening Association study reports that more than 40 million Americans grow vegetables, fruit and herbs. AmpleHarvest.org is a nationwide campaign to diminish hunger in America by enabling these backyard gardeners to share their excess garden bounty with a local food panty. 4,787 food pantries are now registered on AmpleHarvest.org. 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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Press and Media InformationProper Use of Name AmpleHarvest.org Summary Contact Information Press Releases About the AmpleHarvest.org Campaign Why is AmpleHarvest.org Unique The Story Behind AmpleHarvest.org Frequently Asked Questions Additional Resources on Founder Gary Oppenheimer Comments and Feedback Sample Blog Articles Graphics Proper Use of Name Please note the the proper use of the name for the campaign is either "AmpleHarvest.org" or "AmpleHarvest.org Campaign". The name of the non-profit running the AmpleHarvest.org Campaign is "AmpleHarvest.org, Inc." We would appreciate it if you would avoid the using the two word expression "Ample Harvest" when referring to AmpleHarvest.org as it is not the correct name and is likely to confuse your readers/viewers/listeners. AmpleHarvest.org Summary
"AmpleHarvest.org envisions an America where millions of gardeners eliminate malnutrition and hunger in their own community using only their backyard gardens"
The AmpleHarvest.org Campaign Vision Statement
The AmpleHarvest.org Campaign is a nationwide effort to diminish hunger, improve nutrition and help the environment in America by educating, encouraging and 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. AmpleHarvest.org has received support and backing from Google Inc., the U.S. Department of Agriculture, the National Council of Churches, Rotary Int'l, VFW, the National Gardening Association, Garden Writers of America as well as numerous faith organizations. It is available to food pantries and gardeners at no charge. 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 dimished 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 Contact Information Press Contact: Gary Oppenheimer Telephone: AMPLE-6-9880 (267-536-9880) Email: gary@AmpleHarvest.org AmpleHarvest.org Home Page  Press Releases Press Releases About the AmpleHarvest.org Campaign
"The AmpleHarvest.org Campaign is the answer to the classic 'excess supply not reaching the demand' delemma that has up to now resulted in vast amounts of food wasted in millions of gardens across America while the needy in the community remained malnourished and hungry"
Gary Oppenheimer, Nov 2010
Summary: One out of six Americans (including a quarter of all kids under six ) does not have access to healthy fresh food at their food pantry. The AmpleHarvest.org Campaign is a national effort utilizing the Internet that enables 40+ million Americans who grow food in home gardens to easily donate their excess harvest to one of 4,787 registered local food pantries spread across all 50 states. Background: 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 (and now more than 50) 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 estimated 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 over 50 million Americans are food insecure, more than 40 million Americans, according to the National Gardening Association, grow vegetables, fruit and herbs in their backyard, rooftop, patio and windowsill 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 gardener's 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 windowsill 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. ------------------------------------------------- What makes this story different from others you have done in the past
"AmpleHarvest.org does not feed a hungry family one meal. Instead it diminishes hunger and malnutrition permanently and does it by using healthy food already available in the community."
Gary Oppenheimer, Oct 2011
The Story Behind AmpleHarvest.org by Gary Oppenheimer AmpleHarvest.org Founder
"If we're going to have an ample harvest in our community garden, at the very least, it should be donated to the food pantries in town."
Gary Oppenheimer, Oct 2008
Shortly after I became the director of the West Milford Community Garden in late 2008, I learned that some of our garden plot holders -- like millions of backyard gardeners nationwide -- left large amounts of their garden produce unharvested when they grew more than they could possibly use. Aware that hunger is a problem in our community, I suggested that we created a committee that would help to gather this extra food and deliver it to local food pantries. The local program was named Ample Harvest West Milford. Food pantries however were hard to find, in large part because most operate without an Internet site or yellow page listing. Google for example listed the nearest food pantry as being in a town 25 miles away, even though our own town had several of them. And it turns out this same challenge was faced by backyard gardeners nationwide wishing to share their bounty. To address this dilemma, I created the AmpleHarvest.org Campaign, new supply side channel in our national food network that would educate, encourage and enable gardeners with extra produce to easily donate to a local food pantry. AmpleHarvest.org gives food pantries the opportunity to be registered in a central nationwide directory so that gardeners and other donors can share their fresh produce and, garden-by-garden, help diminish hunger in America. Initially conceived of in March 2009, with the help of two volunteer web designers (one of whom is a former food pantry client), the AmpleHarvest.org site was created and tested starting in April 2009. Seven weeks later on May 18, 2009, AmpleHarvest.org was rolled nationally. AmpleHarvest.org received enthusiastic support and backing from Google.com, the USDA, Rotary International, VFW, numerous faith groups as well as many media outlets and food/hunger bloggers. We reached out to food pantries across the country through social networking, food banks, Master Gardeners, faith organizations, and many other groups. In August of 2009, the National Gardening Association partnered with AmpleHarvest.org to help inform its members about the campaign. On October 16, 2009 (World Food Day), only 150 days after its initial roll out, AmpleHarvest.org announced that the 1,000th food pantry ("Rosie's Place Groceries" in Boston, MA) had joined the campaign. In October 2009, the Association of New Jersey Environmental Commissions gave AmpleHarvest.org its 2009 Environmental Achievement Award. In December 2009, at the recommendation of United Way, AmpleHarvest.org started to provide online resources to help individuals who had come to AmpleHarvest.org in need of food assistance. In May 2010, AmpleHarvest.org Founder Gary Oppenheimer was named "CNN Hero" on the Larry King Live show for his anti-hunger work in creating and promoting AmpleHarvest.org to food pantries and gardeners nationwide. In August 2010, as part of its effort to diminish the environmental impact of food waste, the AmpleHarvest.org Campaign was listed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a food rescue resource. In August 2010, as part of its effort to diminish the environmental impact of food waste, the AmpleHarvest.org Campaign was listed by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as a food rescue resource. On Nov 10, 2010, AmpleHarvest.org Founder Gary Oppenheimer was named ""HuffPost's Greatest Person Of The Day"" by the Huffington Post for creating AmpleHarvest.org. In the week leading up to Thanksgiving 2010, AmpleHarvest.org created a campaign to encourage people to replace the floral table arrangements on their Thanksgiving tables with one made of whole fruit instead, which would then be donated to a local food pantry the next day. In 2011, AmpleHarvest.org was named winner of the Glynwood Harvest Wave of the Future Award, Gary was named winner of the 2011 Russ Berrie Award for Making a Difference as well a Huffington Post 2011 Game Changer. Currently, there are 4,787 food pantries across America already registered on AmpleHarvest.org. You can view a nationwide map of all registered food pantries by clicking here. The AmpleHarvest.org Campaign, originally created as a program of Sustainable West Milford (New Jersey) was spawned off in April 2010 and became AmpleHarvest.org Inc. - a 501(c)(3) charitable organization (EIN #27-2433274). Everyone involved in the creation and support of AmpleHarvest.org has donated their time and talent. There are no costs to the food pantries or the gardeners for use of the site. To promote its goal of enabling as many backyard gardeners as possible to donate excess garden produce to as many food pantries as possible, the AmpleHarvest.org Campaign pursues two separate tracks simultaneously:
AmpleHarvest.org, Inc. operates as a non-profit organization registered in the State of New Jersey. There are no costs to the food pantries or the gardeners for use of the site. Frequently Asked Questions 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. Additional information is available at the AmpleHarvest.org food pantry advice page. This 5 mniutes video shows you how a food pantry registers at AmpleHarvest.org and how a gardener would use AmpleHarvest.org to find a food pantry. Comments and Feedback 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. Additional Resources on Founder Gary Oppenheimer Bio: Gary Oppenheimer is a CNN Hero, speaker and lecturer, Master Gardener, Rutgers Environmental Steward, former community garden director, Environmental Commissioner in northern New Jersey, an avid gardener and long distance cyclist. In late 2010, he was named Huffington Post's Greatest Person of the Day and a year later, Huffington Post 2011 Game Changer. He is also winner of the 2011 Russ Berrie Award for Making a Difference. A computer geek from the 1970s and early pioneer in the electronic mail industry, he is Founder and Executive Director of AmpleHarvest.org, Inc. and was introduced on the Larry King Live show in May 2010 for creating the AmpleHarvest.org Campaign and for successfully rolling it out on a national scale. In November 2010, Gary was a speaker/panelist at Wharton's Social Responsibility conference, in late 2011 was invited to the White House to meet the President and First Lady, and is scheduled to speak at TEDx Manhattan in January 2012. He has appeared in numerous radio and TV interviews. "More Than me" (by Kelly Eldredge, published 2010), a book on "people reaching out to help others and in turn experiencing beautiful and unexpected changes of their own" has an entire chapter on Gary and his creation of AmpleHarvest.org. In addition to helping AmpleHarvest.org continue its expansion to food pantries and gardeners nationwide, Gary also does public speaking about hunger and the AmpleHarvest.org Campaign, individuals making a difference in their community as well as a variety of environmental topics. Gary is available for speaking engagements and panel discussions. Contact info@AmpleHarvest.org for more information. ► Read/watch CNN Heroes report on Gary Oppenheimer here. ► Read a chapter about Gary Oppenheimer in MORE Than me: Step Out of Yourself and Into Humanity published in 2010 (Available at Amazon.com). ► Watch an episode of PBS's "Growing A Greener World" focused on AmpleHarvest.org here. ► Listen to (or read) the interview with Gary Oppenheimer by the Get Inspiried Project in 2009 here. ► Read the Huffington Post's Greatest Person Of The Day article here. ► Photos of Gary Oppenheimer addressing the Wharton Social Impact Conferece Gary Oppenheimer speaking Wharton's Social Responsbility Conference Download this video here Gary Oppenheimer being interviewed on "Meet the Experts" Sample Blog Articles Please read our proper use of name section before you publish a blog article. Thank you.
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