Do you want to help feed the hungry? Just plant a row
By Catherine Edman Daily Herald Staff Writer

We’ll help get you going.

In fact, we’ll even give some seeds. And the soil, too.

There’s just one little string attached to the freebies. We’d like you to help us feed people in five counties who seek help from shelters or food pantries.

We’ll give you what you need to get started — as long as you agree to use it and participate in Plant a Row for the Hungry.

On March 31, I’ll be camped out at Knupper Nursery & Landscape in Palatine for the day to hand out a whopping 800 bags of seed starter mix and accompanying packets of vegetable seeds. W. Atlee Burpee Seed graciously donated the vegetable seeds to the Plant a Row program, and Fafard, which produces potting soil, sent six pallets of seed starter mix all the way from South Carolina to help the program here in Chicago’s suburbs.

For the third consecutive year, the Daily Herald is championing the campaign that sends fresh, nutritious garden produce to folks who likely otherwise couldn’t afford it. We’re part of a national effort organized by the Garden Writer’s Association of America.

The Daily Herald is working with Northern Illinois Food Bank and other food pantries across Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake, and McHenry counties to set up drop-off points across the area where you can deliver your produce. We’ll give you ideas all summer long of ways you can participate.

We’ll work with nurseries, including Knupper and Pesche’s Garden Center in Des Plaines, which last year donated 250 tomato and pepper plants to food pantry clients.

And we’ll set a goal and tell you how gardeners in the area are faring in their quest to reach, and exceed, it.

The first year, the goal was 10,000 pounds — and you, our readers, donated more than 17,000 pounds of fresh food for local food pantries.

Last year, we aimed for 25,000 pounds. You delivered 33,000 pounds of tomatoes, cucumbers, peppers, zucchini, beets, radishes, beans, potatoes, onions and just about every other vegetable imaginable.

This year, for the 2001 campaign, we’re getting an even earlier start rallying the troops so we can help you plan, in advance, just how many rows, and just which vegetables, you want to donate.

At Knupper nursery’s March 31 open house, Plant a Row for the Hungry will be there with the seeds, soil, 120 packages of onion sets donated by Van Bloem, and flats and flats of vegetable starts donated by the Kalamazoo Valley Plant Growers Cooperative.

Planting a few extra vegetables is really very simple. And donating any extras is something gardeners already do — though usually to neighbors, co-workers and friends.

"I joke about neighbors pretending they’re not home when we come knocking with an armload of zucchinis," Knupper’s Carol Gillis said, "but the truth is — that’s the truth!"

"Gardeners have done it for a long time; we just haven’t promoted that we do it."

By uniting those efforts, and channeling them toward our neighbors in greatest need, we’re tapping into one of a gardener’s greatest loves: sharing their bounty.

So, this year, the Daily Herald will play Cupid, introducing gardeners to seeds they can use to help the hungry.

Stop on by next weekend and get started on those garden plans, and, while you’re at it, help us Plant a Row for the Hungry.

Shake my hand and say "Yes, I’ll Plant a Row."

I’ll believe you.

It’s a gardener’s agreement.