The Sustainable Garden Community Support Group
It’s hard to believe that there are people in this world who have never eaten common types of fruits and vegetables. Many are too poor to have access to these types of foods or have grown up in a home where everything came out of a can.
Portland, Oregon, with all of it’s rain and mild temperatures, is the perfect place to grow a garden. There is an organization here called Produce for People that is working to grow produce for needy people. It works by people setting aside plots in over 20 community gardens around the Portland area, or by people donating extra produce that they grow. This has allowed them to donate over 25 tons of produce to emergency food providers since 1995.
As one of the consistent top 10 states that ranks for hunger, Oregon can use all the help they can get. The food that is typically provided by emergency food providers is easy to store and doesn’t expire quickly. Unfortunately, fresh produce doesn’t fall into that category. Young children are especially vulnerable to nutritional deficiencies, which is why it is so important that they have access to fresh fruits and vegetables.
Portland also has a program called City Fruit. There are 15 gardens that grow a variety of apples, pears and berries. This program promotes increased wildlife habitat, shady places in the summer, pollination by insects and low cost production of locally grown food. Every fall, one of the gardens has a cider pressing event.
These types of arrangements benefit so many people from the ones working the soil to the needy. This is a great way to get children more connected to nature, which nowadays is sometimes hard to do. Anyone can start a program like this with a little initiative and community support.