Call Goes Out for Local Growers: Group Leads Meeting to Help Stock Food Bank Shelves

By Katherine Tam, The Olympian, Olympia, Wash.

Feb. 4–Local growers are pulling together to see if they can help keep food bank shelves stocked and feed a growing number of low-income people.

Some of the groups grow regularly for the food bank, while others haven’t done it before. Garden-Raised Bounty, a nonprofit group that raises crops, teaches youths and enables low-income families to plant vegetables of their own, is convening a meeting with other gardening organizations and backyard growers Monday to discuss how they can help.

“We want to play a more active role in making sure all the people in our community have access to good food,” said Blue Peetz, a co-director of GRuB.

The number of visits to the Thurston County Food Bank has grown 30 percent per month during the last seven months, said Robert Coit, its executive director. Rising gasoline prices have meant that low-income families are paying more to fill up at the pump and drive to work, leaving less cash for groceries.

At the same time, the agency launched satellite food banks at two affordable housing apartment complexes with nearly 300 units combined on the west side of Olympia. Except for three families, others at the apartments haven’t used the services before because they were working when the food bank is open, Coit said.

“When we have a 30 percent increase, we need a more than 30 percent increase in in-kind giving or cash donations,” Coit said.

The food bank gets most of its vegetables donated in the spring and summer from groups such as the Kiwanis Food Bank Garden and GRuB. A lot of the same crop, mostly zucchini and other squash, come through, which means there isn’t a lot of variety for clients.

Donations taper off in the cold season, so the food bank uses cash donations and reserves to buy produce from grocery stores where it’s usually expensive in the winter, Coit said.

Directors spent an average of $5,800 a month last year on food, he said. They’ve been spending $10,000 a month during the last seven months to keep pace with demand.

Working with local growers through the collaborative effort that GRuB is trying to organize could help provide more donated produce year-round, Coit said. The food bank directors would then spend its cash donations on protein-rich foods such as meat, chili and peanut butter, which also are pricey.

Meanwhile, directors are looking at other ways to ensure they have enough funds so the food bank isn’t empty. That includes hunting for grants and applying to United Way to become a recipient of its annual fundraising campaign, Coit added.

At GRuB’s farm on the west side of Olympia, volunteers and youths grow lettuce, spinach, kale and other greens for the food bank. The farm recently supplied 3,000 pounds of food during the course of a year.

They hope to provide more, now that they’re leasing an additional acre of land that will allow them to triple production, Peetz said. A new greenhouse also will make it possible to grow greens year-round.

GRuB has been in touch with other growers before but hasn’t worked with them the way they’re proposing. They’re also trying to connect with backyard gardeners who might not know what to do with surplus food they grow.

“If they grow an extra 10 to 15 pounds of potatoes, it can go a long way,” Peetz said.

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