Local gardeners combat food insecurity
Harvest program connects growers to pantries
PHILADELPHIA >> People across Montgomery County are gardening for the greater good, providing fresh produce to those in need through PHS Harvest.
“We’re trying to get as many people mobilized and excited for growing and sharing food in their neighborhoods across the Philadelphia region and even beyond,” said Julianne Schrader Ortega, vice president and chief of healthy neighborhoods at the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society.
The PHS Harvest program was initially launched last year, and 44,000 pounds of produce were donated to food pantries across the greater Philadelphia region, according to the organization’s website.
This year, 2,000 people signed up to take part in the PHS Harvest Program, with 165 gardeners living in Montgomery County, according to Schrader Ortega. That figure also included a number of other organizations including the Haverford YMCA and the Ardmore United Methodist Church.
There have been 3,174 pounds of produce donated so far for the 2021 growing season as of June 29, according to a spokesperson.
The initiative offers a variety of resources for growing fruits
and vegetables, which will be donated to participating organizations. The amount of food is then logged on the horticultural society’s website.
The Philadelphia agency works with several local organizations such as the Mattie Dixon Community Cupboard in Ambler and the Ardmore Food Pantry at St. Mary’s Episcopal Church in Ardmore. Schrader Ortega said that PHS has partnered with Montgomery County to set up a “teaching farm” at the Norristown Farm Park in East Norriton.
“Right now what we’re focusing on this year is high volume production,” said Dan Scott, associate director of PHS Meadowbrook Farm. “The goal is to send over as much food as absolutely possible.”
Scott said the Montgomery County-based Farm transformed a “cut flower garden” into a “production garden space” to cultivate fresh food items such as radishes, lettuce, spinach, kale, carrots, potatoes, beets, tomatoes, beans, and peppers.
Scott said crops would then be donated to the Jenkintown Food Cupboard at Jenkintown United Methodist Church in Jenkintown.
“I think it’s not only important to provide food for the community, but to provide fresh, healthy produce,” he said.
Graham Robb, a gardener at the Morris Arboretum, agreed.
“Like many gardeners, I hate to see how much I work on can go to waste,” Robb said.
Robb, of East Mount Airy, has been gardening for the last 30 years. While planting in a plot at the Morris Arboretum, he connected with a handful of other gardeners to collect food for a homeless shelter in Germantown.
During the COVID-19 pandemic, he came across the PHS Harvest program and sent out an email to other gardeners to see if more people might be interested in donating crops.
After receiving a positive response from about 30 fellow gardening enthusiasts last year, he was able to find another food pantry through online PHS Harvest resources. Participating gardeners have grown lettuce, kale, tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, as well as different kinds of herbs.
Since then, they’ve been collecting produce and dropping off items to the Great Commission Church and the Whosoever Gospel Mission, both located in Philadelphia.
“It feels great because you put all this effort into growing and you think hopefully succeed in growing a decent crop and now you know that none of it’s going to waste and it’s being used more importantly by people who really need it,” Robb said.
With two refrigerators in his East Mount Airy home, Robb often serves as a coordinator for food drop offs. He noted that participating gardeners strive to ensure food doesn’t go to waste.
He recalled a gardener who was not going to be in town to drop off her items at the Morris Arboretum community garden drove half-an-hour to his East Mount Airy home “to make sure that the lettuce she’s growing is getting to somebody who needs it.”
“I think that’s a great example of people’s desire to see what they grow get put to good use,” Robb said.
Schrader Ortega added that the COVID-19 pandemic shed light on area food insecurity issues and worked to find solutions.
“Well, I think unfortunately in the Philadelphia region, we have challenges of food security, and food access that was before the pandemic, but COVID really has exacerbated that need, especially for our more financially vulnerable neighbors who are experiencing more pandemic related job loss and income loss so it’s just gotten way worse,” she said.
“This is a problem that predates the pandemic especially because of historically racist policies and practices like redlining, business and governments haven’t really invested in Black and brown communities in the same way with infrastructure, like supermarkets for instance,” Schrader Ortega went on to say.
“So your access to food really does depend on where you live in Montgomery County and in the greater Philadelphia region,” she continued. “So we’re trying to really support these networks of selfreliance for people to be able to grow food for their family and enough to share for their neighbors, too.”
PHS Harvest has a number of online tools available for gardeners of all skill levels. Those interested can find more information on growing and donating food items. To learn more, go to phsonline.org/for-gardeners/harvest/overview.
“Whether you’re a community gardener at Morris, or if you just want to garden, and all you have is your front steps, we’ve created all sorts of different growing guides and resources to get everybody growing and sharing,” Schrader Ortega said.