For the last several weeks, our family has been digging. And hoeing and mulching and fertilizing — and regularly pulling up ChatGBT to find out what we are doing right and wrong as relatively newbie vegetable gardeners.
It’s been fun, somewhat challenging given our restricted growing space, and very, very messy. I heave heavy sighs several times a day on the weekends, watching my just-polished floors trampled with mud. In these times of uncertainty, trying to grow food has also been empowering and educational, both good things that are good for kids and families.
Garden to give back
It turns out the fruits of our labor can also benefit other families. By “planting a row for hunger,” we look forward to supplying our local food bank (West Seattle Food Bank) with zucchini, cabbage, and kale this summer. We also hope our garden can give back to soup kitchens in our area and a few of our elderly neighbors.
In an era of on-again, off-again tariffs, and funding cuts, local food banks are rightly worried about supply, and families experiencing food insecurity (around 13% in King County, 18% in Pierce County, and 14 % in Snohomish County) are at increased risk of hunger. Across the nation, one in six children currently lives in a food-insecure home, and the number continues to rise, according to The Annie E. Casey Foundation.
Lots, a little, or no space, you can still grow
You don’t have to have a whole garden bed to grow food, and give back. Simple containers will do — we recently bought large planting containers at Costco for $16 each. The four Blue Lake bean starts we planted totaled $15, and a little composted soil was $8 at Home Depot.
If your family lives in an apartment or a home without space for gardening, consider getting on the list for your local community garden plot through the city of Seattle’s P-Patch Gardening program or similar programs. Not only is the program free, but the P-Patch garden community actively supports youth gardening and community food security programs for all city residents, emphasizing feeding immigrants, youth, and lower-income residents.
What will be in our box?
The beans we harvest from two of those plants will feed our neighbors. So will the fruits of two zucchini plants, two kale plants, and two tomato plants. So far. We’re really enjoying the mud under our fingernails.
According to AmpleHarvest.org and their ProducePedia page, those veggies are welcome items at most food banks and soup kitchens. Here’s the complete list: Apples, artichokes, asparagus, bell peppers, broccoli, cabbage, carrots, cauliflower, corn, cucumbers, eggplant, kale, lemon, lettuce, onion, spinach, strawberry, tomato, zucchini.
Other produce may also be welcome, but check with your local food bank regarding what they will accept.
Where to donate
Where is your closest food bank or soup kitchen? AmpleHarvest.org does the searching for you. Just go to the website and put in your zip code.
The nonprofit volunteer advocacy site Doing Good Together put it best when it called on families to grow some rows for their local communities: “This isn’t just about feeding people. It’s about fighting obesity, malnutrition, and hunger at the same time. It’s about building a stronger, healthier community — one garden at a time.”
Ready to grow?
Gardening, growing and giving back can be as simple or as complicated as fits your family’s style. But here are the basic steps.
- Choose your garden site: bed, container, or community plot.
- Decide how much (number of plants or a row count) you will donate as a family.
- Prepare your soil or get balanced soil from a nursery or other source. Our family needed to test the soil (science lesson!) to discover why our spinach looked a little yellow.
- Get your seeds or starts. We highly recommend the nonprofit Tilth Alliance annual edible plant sales and gardening classes for kids.
- Plant, water, and wait.
- Call your local food pantry or soup kitchen to make sure they can accept your donation. If not, check on AmpleHarvest.org for other banks or meal programs that will take them.
- Harvest your produce when it’s ripe and ready.
- Box it up (save a few boxes from that Costco trip or Amazon purchase).
- Have kids create cards for the box. For example: “From the garden of ___“
- Deliver.
A final hint
If you donate to a food bank, ask about getting a tour as a family. It’s an opportunity for kids to learn about their community’s needs and gain compassion for those struggling to get by with less.
