23,000 pounds
Well it’s not the end of the year yet but with the celebration of Thanksgiving this week, the timing of this update seems appropriate. What we’re thankful for here at HarvestShare is the 23,000 pounds of super fresh produce that we’ve donated to food pantries in our area this year. Yes 23K in 2023, helping us reach the milestone of 28 TONS since the summer of 2020. Contributing to this monumental effort are 6 community gardens, 3 grow-to-donate gardens, a youth garden, a single church , a tree nursery, a farmers market and numerous county residents who donated from their own gardens.
Other noteworthy news:
- The Giving Garden in Potomac finished its first summer season with HarvestShare gardeners and volunteers from Potomac Presbyterian Church investing over 500 hours in making this new garden a success.
- Another donation garden in the town of Washington Grove has signed on to be part of our HarvestShare network. This small garden hopes to expand next year, looking into what it takes to start a food forest.
- Our Lady of Visitation Parish in Darnestown amazed us all with their produce donation campaign. What started as a summer initiative has bloomed into an effort to start their own food garden.
- Montgomery Parks Community Gardens, the Grown@ Pope and Pope Farm Nursery continue to grow and share enormous amounts of food with our neighbors in need.
- A huge shout out again to our participating vendors at Bethesda Central Market who continue to support us with their weekly donations.
What I intentionally omitted in this year’s wrap up was lots of numbers and who donated how much. We appreciate each and every donor, grower, driver, team leader and volunteer who make HarvestShare such a success. With donations to 13 MoCo food assistance providers and the hundreds and hundreds of food insecure families they support, we can be assured that we make a difference in the lives of many.
