Summer's bounty comes through big time

This summer's abundant rain and soaring mercury translated into bulging food pantry shelves.

Gardeners' generosity, it seems, grew as fast as most lawns.

For the first time since the Daily Herald's Giving Garden campaign started in 1999, collections this week crossed the 73,000-pound threshold: 73,558 pounds to be precise. And there still are two weeks left to donate.

The Giving Garden campaign encourages growers to plant a little extra in their plots and donate that -- or any other surplus -- to pantries helping those in need.

"What I'm hoping is that this is getting more visibility," said Joanne Mitrenga, executive director of Naperville's Loaves & Fishes Community Pantry.

"(I'm hoping) that people are realizing there are more people in need and they do make a difference," she said. "If what they bring over is enough for two families, well, that's enough for two families."

The Giving Garden campaign continues until Oct. 1. For a list of drop-off sites, visit www.dailyherald.com.

The bumper crop comes in especially handy because demand at food pantries continues to rise. The Naperville site, for example, has seen a fourfold increase in demand since 2000.

"I know the gardens all did much better this year," said the Barb Janssen of the Barrington Township Food Pantry. "Everybody I talked to this year who came in said they got much better production."

That certainly was true at the Woodland Elementary West School garden, where every second-grade student gets involved in the planting. Last year, the plot produced 450 pounds of food for the pantry.

This year, they've raked in more than 900 pounds -- and they're still not done, parent Anne Nagro said of the Gages Lake crew.

"That doesn't count all the zucchini that would sink a ship," she said.