The produce sharing program with the Evanston Community Gardens is continuing in North Evanston. (Home gardens may contribute as well.)
Are you growing more produce in your home garden than you can use?
Please consider donating your extra produce to feed the hungry in Evanston.
South Evanston:
Our South Evanston collections for 2014 have concluded. Thanks go out to Nancy Bennett and Donna Feldman, the volunteers who put out the coolers and delivered the produce to the food pantry all summer.
North Evanston:
Saturday. Be sure to leave produce by Noon.
McCormick Community Gardens
across from the Ecology Center, at 2024 McCormick Blvd.
Twiggs Canal Community Gardens
at the intersection of Bridge and Simpson.
Place your extra garden-grown produce in the provided coolers. Donations may be left in the provided coolers starting the evening before pickup.
Where does it go?
Donations are delivered by Edible Evanston from the James Park site to the Harvest Food Pantry at 2495 Howard Street, Evanston, and from McCormick site to the Hillside Food Pantry at 2727 Crawford Avenue, Evanston.
Volunteers are needed when Anna and Ken are not available.
Edible Evanston Food Sharing Initiative History
Creating a pipeline to distribute produce grown in the Evanston community gardens to food pantries in the area – this is the premise behind the Edible Evanston Sharing Initiative. Edible Evanston is part of Evanston 150, a community-wide initiative, to make actionable ten visionary ideas to celebrate Evanston’s 150th anniversary in 2013.
Edible Evanston’s mission is expanding local food sources by creating urban farms, community gardens, greenhouses, and composting sites, with a long-term commitment to the preservation of open green spaces. The Sharing Initiative, under the Edible Evanston umbrella, is tasked with getting locally grown produce to hungry people in the community.
A survey was compiled to determine whether there was any interest in this initiative. The survey was sent to all Evanston community gardeners at James Park, Twiggs Canal, McCormick, and the Lighthouse locations. From approximately 250 gardeners, 90 responded and 83% said they would be interested in donating their extra produce to a local food pantry and/or soup kitchen. Next, two food pantries in the area were contacted to receive the donated produce. They are:
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The Harvest Food Pantry, located at 2495 Howard Street, Evanston
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A Just Harvest Community Kitchen, located at 7649 N. Paulina St., Chicago
Several non-produce donations helped make the initiative a reality – two coolers with wheels were donated, along with reusable ice packs to keep the produce cool until it is collected. The coolers are put out in the evenings and the gardeners have until the next afternoon to harvest their excess produce and place it in the cooler, at which time a volunteer from each organization picks up the produce.
Our first day was Wednesday, August 8th, 2012 and we've been averaging a full cooler every week. The response has been positive from the gardeners. They’ve said, "It's a wonderful thing" or, "We're glad someone is doing this." Sometimes someone will come running into the garden, "Am I too late? Am I too late?" and they want to dig up something last minute to donate. The Dawes School Garden donated a wheelbarrow of produce and a lady donated peaches from her tree in her home garden.
Zucchini, cucumbers, and tomatoes of all varieties and sizes have been the most popular donations, but there have also been green beans, chard, peppers, tomatillos, turnips, okra, acorn squash, lemon sage, mint, rosemary, and basil - so quite a nice selection. To date, an estimated 200lbs of produce has been collected. The program will end mid-October and will start up again in early summer next year.
If you are interested in participating in this initiative, either from your community garden plot or your home garden, or in volunteering your time for the continued success of the initiative, please contact Anna Fedyshyn at foodsharing[at]edibleevanston[dot]org.