Pantry gardens yields more produce than previous year
The Utah State University Cooperative Extension Food Pantry Gardens, located at the Utah Botanical Center in Kaysville, supplied several food banks in Utah with approximately 39,600 pounds of produce. It yielded five times the amount of produce from 2009.
“We have the land,” said JayDee Gunnell, assistant professor and Horticulture Extension agent for Davis County, “we might as well do something good with it.”
Although similar to USU’s food pantry SNAC (Student Nutrition Access Center) in the provision of food to those in need, the USU Cooperative Extension Food Pantry Gardens is different because it provides for many food banks around the state, enabling community members to access fresh grown food.
The USU Food Pantry Garden first started as an Eagle Scout Project speared by three Boy Scouts, the press release stated.
The project began with 12,000 square feet of multiple plots growing a variety of vegetables. With the leadership of the Boy Scouts, who organized the event, and the help of more than 1,100 local volunteers, the garden was able to produce more than 7,000 pounds of food in that first season.
Gunnell said, “We typically get a dozen or two eagle scouts but we figured that this would be a really worthy cause to move forward in and spread it towards communities.”
From there, the project took off and since has been extremely successful.
“They came in droves,” said Gunnell about the community involvement. He stated, now that the Boy Scouts are gone, many volunteers, such as religious groups, help to maintain and harvest the gardens. The Intermountain Farmers Association and Mountain Valley Seed of Salt Lake were also generous in donating all of the seed for the garden along with Questar Gas and Energy Solutions with their financial support.
This season, according to the press release, the Garden expanded from 12,000 square feet to about an acre – approximately 43,560 square feet. Five acres of corn was added to the project resulting in more than 33,000 pounds of corn and 6,600 pounds of tomatoes, cucumbers, melons, beans and peppers.
Once the food has been grown and harvested, it is then distributed among different food banks in Utah where it is then available for community members to access it.
“We usually see about 200 individuals a day and they are allowed to take what they want,” said Jaynann Johnson, director of case management at Bountiful Community Food Pantry. “This is the first year we’ve received food from them. The quality was so wonderful, we were so grateful.”
Johnson also said that each time the Food Pantry Garden delivers fresh produce, at least 100 community members benefit from it.
“Extension is one of the best kept secrets at USU with a three-fold mission of research, education, and service,” Gunnell said.
Each county in Utah has a USU extension office to fulfill the service of “helping Utahns help themselves” through providing all that the University offers at a more convenient location, and research-based information.
– allie.jeppson@aggiemail.usu.edu