Local gardeners give and give some more

It took a lot of water to keep vegetable gardens flourishing this summer.

First, there was all that heat without a single rain-producing cloud in sight. Then - finally - after a few good drenchings from the skies, the drought picked up right where it left off.

Through it all, suburban gardeners took care of their plots in whatever manner they could. Then, they made sure to deliver plenty of produce to food pantries taking part in the Daily Herald's Giving Garden program.

Since July, residents in Cook, Lake, Kane, DuPage and McHenry counties dropped off 71,829 pounds of fresh produce.

That means area residents who need assistance putting meals on the table got a total of 215,406 servings of food from their neighbors this summer.

Clients savor the produce they receive in addition to their general allotment, but the drop-offs are a nice way to meet new members of the community, said Irene Rodriguez, director of Meadows Community Services in Rolling Meadows.

"I think it's fun for me and my staff to see everything (that's brought in), and I think it's even more fun for the people who bring the stuff in," she said.

That would be a hard point to argue.

Northfield Township's food pantry joined the program that urges gardeners to grow just a little extra for those in need - and reaped huge rewards for clients. In the pantry's very first season, gardeners delivered 585 pounds.

Clients were thrilled, said pantry coordinator Mary Lou Kratochwill. Though the 270 families served each month are allowed to come in only once every four weeks, they could stop in as often as possible for the fresh produce - which was outside the pantry's normal resources.

"We've had people calling back to see if we had anything come in," she said.

Fremont Township, another new participant, had a similarly strong response - collecting 1,382 pounds during its first summer in the program.

At the start of the year, the township's food pantry served about 10 to 12 families each month, said Pete Tekampe, township supervisor. That's already up to around 14 or 15 families, so the additional donations came in handy.

An area farmer also called Tekampe several times this summer offering to donate some of his extra produce if Tekampe was willing to come pick it up. The clients would have had even more fresh food had the drought not decimated area corn crops, he said.

"There was no rain. Produce takes rain," Tekampe said.

Thankfully, gardeners picked up the slack by dutifully watering, and that meant area food pantries received 35 tons of food this summer.