Gardener rallies co-workers to Plant a Row

Rudy Viereckl just wasn't getting enough quality time with his plants.

He worked on experimental flowers all day, tended a home garden at night, but still, felt the need for more.

What he wanted was a garden designed to benefit others, not himself.

At the bottom of a small knoll, next to a rambling little creek, sits the perfect solution: a vegetable garden whose entire yield is delivered to an area food pantry.

Viereckl, a breeder technician at PanAmerican Seed Co. in Elburn, is Planting a Row for the Hungry and inviting his co-workers along for the ride. The 20-by-30-foot plot they cultivated on the grounds of PanAmerican, one of the world's leading breeders and producers of flower seeds, might be "small" this year, Viereckl says, but he's got big dreams.

He envisions a project that grows with each successive year.

And that's what tends to happen with Plant a Row for the Hungry, the campaign that urges gardeners to put in an extra row of vegetables - or donate any extras from their existing beds - to area food pantries and soup kitchens.

The campaign sponsored locally by the Daily Herald sent 17,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables to area food pantries its first year and now, the fourth year of the campaign, we're striving for a goal of 45,000 pounds.

There are more than 40 drop-off sites for the food in Cook, DuPage, Kane, Lake and McHenry counties. Collection continues through Sept. 29.

It's a clichȩ to say the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks caused Viereckl to rethink his priorities. But it's simultaneously true that the sense of other people's loss and pain led him to wonder what he could do to benefit those folks locally who need a helping hand.

"We are so fortunate," Viereckl said, standing beside his new garden.

In fact, though his family knew there were people in need within their community, even they were surprised by the extent.

Rudy's wife, Carol, dropped off a load of fresh spinach from their home garden at the Batavia Interfaith Pantry this spring and was stunned by the number of clients seeking assistance.

You just don't think about people being hungry in the middle of the suburbs, she said.

They've willingly shared the bounty from their personal garden in the past because "sometimes you're up to your eyeballs in spinach," Carol Viereckl quipped.

But this year, it's intentional.

Viereckl set aside the plot in the company's larger employee garden and asked his co-workers to share any extra seeds or plants they wouldn't use in their own areas.

The PAR garden wound up with neat, raised little rows of onions, tomatillos, eggplants, tomatoes and a wide variety of peppers.

Additionally, he extended an offer to his peers: if they bring any fruits and vegetables from their home gardens to work on Tuesdays, he'll deliver it all to the food pantry for them.

While quantity isn't the overall goal, Viereckl said he's now aware of the fact that every additional pound of produce he delivers is one more that the Batavia food pantry can distribute to its long line of clients.

And that's all the motivation he needs.