Peterson Garden Project – Friday October 16th Free Symposium
On October 16th Peterson Garden Project is holding a small, free symposium to discuss what community gardens can do to help address fresh produce access in their neighborhoods.
I am reaching out for help inviting community gardens that have, or are interested in starting donation programs and food pantries and soup kitchens that are currently accepting, or are interested in accepting fresh produce donations from community gardens. Do you know anyone who would benefit from attending the symposium? Know anyone with great information and experience to share during the breakout sessions? Please send this along!
I know this is a topic that comes up from time to time, but this is the first time PGP will be sharing details for our Grow2Give program with the community. Our hope is that others will also share the logistics for their unique programs, so those new to making/receiving garden donations will be able to figure out what works best for them, without starting from scratch.
We are organizing a panel discussion (10:00-10:45) to address the following:
-issues affecting fresh food donations (what has helped? what has been a challenge?)
-how have pantries and community gardens have worked together and around the issues?
-what is needed to make it more accessible on both ends and address continuing barriers? what has been done already? what barriers were overcome and how?
We are organizing a breakout session/resource sharing (11am-noon) so attendees leave with information in hand:
-lists of pantries by neighborhood, including: drop-off times, produce wish lists, what they do not want, whether or not they have refrigeration/ability to wash produce, preferred quantities or packaging sizes
-lists of gardens by neighborhood, including: contact information, general harvest schedule, is washing/packaging produce an issue?
-tools that make it easier for gardens, tools that make it easier for pantries (what are people doing now and what do they wish they had?)
Finally, we will have a shared meal (noon-1pm) with time for networking and connecting to new volunteers, experienced gardeners/donators, and pantries/soup kitchens.
Register here.