Greetings, good neighborhood associations folks!
My name is Dana Miller and I am the co-Director of the Grow Local Colorado Campaign.
We are collaborating with other area organizations, including Cooking Matters, Livewell Colorado, Slow Food Denver, Denver Urban Gardens, Plant a Row for the Hungry, Metro CareRing, Foodbank of the Rockies, Yardharvest and St. John’s Episcopal Church, to get more freshly grown local produce into food pantries, by connecting those pantries with school gardens, community gardens and home gardens in their neighborhood.
I have attached the press release and it is below as well. We will be presenting at the INC meeting on August 9, as well as the Neighborhood Conference in September.
We are asking neighborhood associations to help us get out the word via their newsletters or by allowing us to come present at a meeting. We really need help in getting out the word to home gardeners. Nationwide, 40% of produce grown in home gardens goes to waste, so if we can capture some of this surplus we can get a lot more produce to our neighbors that need it the most.
Any help you could extend in this effort is most appreciated. If you are going to print it in a newsletter or send it out in an email, please feel free to use the press release as it is written, or we are happy to provide you with a shorter version.
Produce for Pantries
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE Contact Person: Dana Miller
June 20, 2012 C: 720-837-6237
H: 720-924-4462
produceforpantries@gmail.com
PRODUCE FOR PANTRIES ADDRESSES INCREASING HUNGER IN DENVER METRO AREA
Organizations Come Together to Increase Availability of Garden Grown Produce in Local Food Pantries
DENVER – In response to the growing number of people visiting Denver area food pantries and to increase access to healthy and fresh produce for all, area organizations have come together to create Produce for Pantries. A project of Cooking Matters, Grow Local Colorado, Denver Urban Gardens, Slow Food Denver, Plant a Row for The Hungry, Livewell Colorado, Food Bank of the Rockies, Metro CareRing, Yardharvest, and St. John’s Cathedral, Produce for Pantries connects food pantries with school gardens, community gardens, and home gardens in their neighborhoods to provide locally grown and healthy food and nutrition education to those in need. Through Yardharvest, food pantries will also be connected with fruit gleaned from residents' trees who have an excess they would like to donate.
A total of twenty-three Denver area pantries are involved as pilot sites for 2012. Those pantries are being connected with school gardens via Slow Food Denver, community gardens via Denver Urban Gardens, and home gardens via a media campaign. As well as receiving fresh produce, food pantries will be provided with easy, nutritious bilingual recipes to accompany the produce, information on safe food handling and storage for the fresh produce, as well as on-site cooking classes.
“In the world’s wealthiest nation no child should go hungry, but one in five children in America struggles with hunger” says Cooking Matters’ Megan Bradley, “and Produce for Pantries recognizes that one of the main hurdles to healthy eating can be access to local nutritious foods. You can’t get more local than food grown in the neighborhood of food pantries.”
Produce for Pantries “connects the dots” by bringing together youth growing produce in school gardens, residents growing in community gardens, and citizens growing vegetables in home gardens to help nourish their neighbors in need, thereby strengthening and enriching Denver’s diverse neighborhoods. Residents are encouraged to email produceforpantries@gmail.com to connect with their nearest participating food pantry, and to register their fruit trees online at www.yardharvest.org if they would like to donate their excess fruit to nearby food pantries.
Most sincerely,
Dana Miller
Produce for Pantries
Member, Denver Sustainable Food Policy Council
Co-Director, Grow Local Colorado
www.growlocalcolorado.org
720-837-6237
Join us for cocktails and conversation, including some stimulating ideas from other human services professionals!