A local leadership group has an idea for what you can do with this August’s inevitable bumper crop of zucchini — besides ditch them on your neighbors’ doorsteps at midnight.
A Leadership Clark County group has stepped in to help encourage growers of all stripes to donate their extra harvest, or even plant extra rows, to help feed those who need it most.
Six members of this year’s graduating class came up with the idea of bringing fresh produce to the tables at four area nonprofits.
“We realized community gardens were kind of a hot topic,” group member Cheree Nygard said. “We knew there is a huge need for donations.”
While Clark County has numerous nonprofit organizations that serve prepared meals, they often contain canned or processed food, Nygard said. So when they contacted four agencies to see if they’d be interested in taking on a gardener or farmer’s extra bounty of cucumbers, lettuce, tomatoes and other fruits and vegetables, she said they were eager to get in on it.
“We could really use produce — we do about 60,000 meals a year just out of Luepke Center alone,” said Dave Bowlan, Luepke Center manager for Loaves & Fishes, which assists seniors. “We’ll have no problem using as much as people can send our way.”
The leadership group also realized it can be tough for those swimming in summer squash to know where to turn, said group member and local lawyer Matt Bisturis.
So the six drafted a flier with contact information for Loaves & Fishes; Share, which helps the hungry and homeless; CDM Long Term Care Services, a nonprofit home health care company; and Innovative Services, which serves children and adults with disabilities or disadvantages.
“If (growers) have a contact, they can just pick up the phone,” Bisturis said.
They sent the contact flier, along with letters, to as many farmers, community-supported agriculture groups and farmers market stands as they could. They canvassed community gardens and neighborhood associations.
“We’re just trying to get the word out to people growing food that there’s a need out there,” said Paul Scherwinski, director of LeanSigma operations at Underwriters Laboratories in Camas.
The team — Nygard, Bisturis, Scherwinski, Alex Gordon, Jami Satterwaite and Eric Erickson — will present their project on June 4.
Leadership Clark County’s 2010 class of 36 participants will graduate June 11.
The group will disband after graduation, but they hope their groundwork lives well beyond then.
“The biggest obstacle for us was the timing of it, our class was from November to early June,” quipped Erickson, setting up a pun, as his classmates groaned: “We won’t get to see the fruits of our labor.”
