Plant A Row for the Hungry

Another objective of the GWA Foundation is to educate the public on the issue of hunger and encourage public action to reduce hunger in every local community through participation in the GWA's Plant A Row for the Hungry program.

According to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, one in ten households in the United States experiences hunger or the risk of hunger. Approximately 25 million people, including 9.9 million children, have substandard diets or must resort to seeking emergency food because they cannot always afford the food they need. In the past year, the demand for hunger assistance has increased by 40%, and hundreds of hungry children and adults are turned away from food banks each year because of lack of resources.

The purpose of the Plant A Row program is to expand participation in gardening by educating the general public on hunger issues and creating and sustaining a grassroots program whereby garden writers utilize their media position with local newspapers, magazines and radio/TV programs to educate and encourage their readers/listeners to donate their surplus garden produce to local food banks, soup kitchens and assistance programs to help feed America’s hungry.

The role of the Plant A Row program is to provide focus, direction and support to volunteer committees who execute the programs at the local level. The GWA Foundation helps gather the human resources necessary to form a nucleus for a local committee. Then it provides training and direction to enable the committee to reach out into the community. Finally, the Foundation assists in training volunteer committees to coordinate local food collection systems and monitor the volume of donations being conveyed to the soup kitchens and food banks.

The Plant A Row program is proving that every individual can make a difference in his/her community. Last year, over 600 local committees volunteered for the Plant A Row program with an average of 45 people involved in each program totaling 27,000 volunteers who donated over 1.3 million pounds of produce to help feed the hungry.

CURRENT NEEDS
Beginning its tenth year in 2004, the Plant A Row program has more than 600 local programs and a rapidly expanding network of volunteer committees that need support and coordination to keep their community service growing. Funds are currently needed to provide educational and promotional materials, garden markers, produce pledge cards, training manuals, a toll-free telephone help line and personnel to direct committee volunteers and the public.

Click here For more information on the Plant a Row for the Hungry program


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