| Last updated on August 28, 2008 |
Help alleviate hunger by raising vegetables for Madison area food pantries and low income housing units.
Description:
Volunteers plant, weed and harvest vegetables on five 1-acre garden plots. (An acre is 43,560 sq. ft.) The plots are located around the periphery of Madison. (See "Locations" in our web site. All of the produce is given free to the Madison Area Food Pantries and low income housing units, primarily through the Community Action Coalition and Second Harvest Food Bank of Southern Wisconsin.
For garden maintenance, we use roto-tillers and hand weeding and hoeing. Some volunteers work once in the season; others once a month; some weekly.
We begin planting the first week in May and continues into early June with late crops. The harvest season begins early in July and continues until the first killing frost, usually in October. Harvest times are Monday evening in the Lacy Garden and Monday and Thursday morning in the Hershberger and Malmquist gardens.
Help is needed also to deliver produce to Community Action Coalition and Second Harvest Food Bank.
To volunteer or find the location of the garden nearest to you, contact either Emmett Schulte or Ken Witte. Also, see our web site (address below).
History:
A few years ago several churches and service clubs began collecting surplus produce from the Saturday Farmers' Market on the Square and from the Fitchburg, Hilldale and Middleton Farmers' Markets. We collected well over 2,000 lbs. of produce each week, especially after mid-July. It became obvious that even this was not enough to satisfy the needs of the low income housing units, meal programs, and the 44 food pantries in Dane County. In 2000, therefore, we established three 1-acre garden plots, from which we harvested an estimated 80,000 lbs of produce during the summer and fall. Because this was beyond our best expectations, we planted six 1-acre sites in 2001. Owing to a lack of volunteers, we scaled back to four sites in 2002 but increased to five sites in 2003.
Contact people:
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Emmett Schulte, Project Coordinator, (608)233-4829, (email)
Ken Witte, Project Coordinator, (608)233-1417 |
Address:
Web Site: http://www.foodpantrygardens.org
Directions:
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See LOCATIONS page of web site. |
Miscellaneous Information
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