Helping through the Harvest: 2 Ways to Donate to Loving Spoonful

The nights may be longer and the temperatures cooler, but nothing seems to say fall more than the abundancy of the harvest. All across the county, from small home gardens to expansive fields, produce is 'ripe for the picking', literally, and there's really no better time to be thinking locally. 

At this point in the season, home gardeners may be feeling just a little underwhelmed by the taste of tomatoes in every salad; others may find themselves in want of a new way to cook their kale in an effort to spice things up a bit. As home gardeners collect up the last of the summer's bounty, certain produce tends to dominate the plate. While there's certainly a great deal of satisfaction in eating what's been grown in your own backyard, small yet successful gardens can sometimes produce more than their tenders are interested or able to eat. 

Enter Loving Spoonful's Grow-a-Row program that collects donations from community growers such as home- and business-run gardens. Earlier this season, many individuals and Kingston businesses committed to growing a row of garden veggies to donate to the organization that enhances food access through food reclamation and local meal programming. Through Loving Spoonful, food collected through the Grow-a-Row program is donated to local Kingston shelters, service organizations, and hot meal programs that help get healthy food into the hands of those who need it most. 

Living Room's Grow-a-Row garden in June 2014 (Facebook, Loving Spoonful)

Last year, Loving Spoonful collected over 7,200 pounds of fresh produce through the program and have their sights set on an even higher goal this year of 10,000 lbs. So if your green thumb turned out bigger than your appetite why not donate the extra produce to Loving Spoonful?! Donations can be dropped off at the: 

• Kingston Public Market on Tuesdays or Thursdays from 3 to 5pm and Saturdays from 1 to 5pm, 
• at the Memorial Farmers' Market on Sundays from noon to 2, 
• or Sydenham Street United Church Monday through Fridays from 9am to noon, and Tuesdays through Fridays from 4 to 7pm

As it turns out, home gardeners are not the only ones with extra to spare. Community Harvest Ontario reports that approximately 25 million pounds of fruits and vegetables across the province are disposed of or tilled back into the soil every year. Gleaning, the "act of harvesting leftover crops from famers fields after they have been commercially harvested" takes advantage of this excess. It has practiced for thousands of years and was of the earliest ways by which food welfare was achieved. 

The Gleaners. Jean-François Millet. 1857

Of course, Loving Spoonful, being as resourceful as they are, will be taking advantage of this age-old practice this season in an effort to further fuel their cause. The organization reports that "last weeks haul saw hundreds of pounds of good produce diverted from compost to the agencies feeding people in Kingston." Volunteers are needed again this Saturday, October 4th to glean tomatoes. Those able to give their time can contact Anita at preserves@lovingspoonful.org to RSVP or for more information.