Snyder hoping eggplants offer new solution to fight hunger

By TAMARA SCULLY
AFP Correspondent

Pittstown — Snyder Research Farm played host to a dozen or so volunteers, who labored under the hot sun to harvest 1,200 pounds of eggplant — all donated to local food banks — for distribution around the state.
Thanks to the efforts of America’s Grow A Row, the rapidly growing non-profit dedicated to providing fresh food to food pantries and soup kitchens across the state, the eggplant, which would have gone to waste, was used to feed the hungry.
Norwescap and the Mercer Street Friends Food Bank distributed the harvest, which was picked by Grow A Row volunteers.
Chip Paillex, founder of the non-profit America’s Grow a Row, which originated and is based in Hunterdon County, is grateful that Snyder Research Farm offered up the produce. Snyder Research Farm is Rutgers Center for Sustainable Agriculture, and as such evaluates variables which effect crop growth and yield.
Without a crew to harvest the crop, nor any way to distribute it, the eggplant would have generated data needed on yield under various conditions, but would have gone to waste as a food source.
Instead, thanks to GAR volunteers, the crop provided a nutritious, delicious fare for those in need.
While GAR volunteers regularly glean the fields from dozens of willing farms each season, they also grow their own food.
Peaceful Valley Orchards, also in Pittstown, remains a host farm for the program, providing acreage, seeds, equipment and expertise for GAR volunteers, who grow a garden plot loaded with produce, all to be donated to those in need.
Each year, more farmers open their fields to GAR volunteers for for gleaning.
And more dedicated plots are cultivated, specifically growing food for those in need.
In 2009, GAR collected 320,000 pounds of produce, using 950 volunteers and 5,700 hours of manpower.
The program has grown so tremendously since its 2002 inception, that it now has its own refrigerated storage unit, holding about 60 pallets of food.
“We can pick it and keep it in the cooler,” Paillex said, giving food banks flexibility in picking the crop up for distribution. Additionally, GAR volunteers deliver daily to smaller food pantries and soup kitchens that do not have adequate refrigeration and normally can not offer their clients fresh, perishable product.
Larger agencies, such as Northwest New Jersey Community Action Program or Farmers Against Hunger, can come and access pallets of food, with the refrigeration providing a window of opportunity, allowing more food to be gleaned, stored and distributed, rather than go to waste.
From case quantities to full truckloads, GAR can supply exactly what is needed for any hunger relief agency in New Jersey.
The key to GAR is that the food being provided for the hungry is fresh, nutritious, vitamin-laden fruits and vegetables, not the packaged, processed foods which make up a significant part of the diet of those most in need, Paillex said.
The objective is to reach as many people with this healthy food as possible.
Paillex believes that exposing children to the needs of the hungry, and offering them the opportunity to make a difference in the health of others by growing and harvesting a crop is paramount.
“We are giving children the opportunity to give back in a way that is very unique. They are able to put food on their plates,” Paillex said of the program’s outreach to children. “The objective is to set the see in the heart of a child at a young age,” Paillex said. “It is all generosity. There is a huge lesson in that.”
“Most of our planting is done by kids,” Paillex said. Children are recruited from various church youth groups or other programs. They all volunteer to “plant, maintain, harvest, and give it all away.”
Recently, GAR hosted a “day on the farm” for underprivileged children from Paterson.
They children learned about growing food, picked food to take home for their dinners, and picked extra to take back into their communities for distribution via local hunger relief programs.
From a mere few hundred lbs of produce donated by Paillex in 2002, to the 300,000-plus pounds donated by GAR in 2009, the organization has been growing exponentially.
From donated excess produce from home gardens, to dedicated acreage on area farms, to gleaning of fields, GAR has incorporated as many ways to obtain farm-fresh foods for the needy as they can find.
The next step, one which is happening in time for the 2011 season, is for GAR to procure its own farm.
GAR has recently purchased farmland, and is working diligently to get it ready for growing.
Inputs such as deer fencing, equipment and seed is needed, but the farm is a reality, and it opens up the possibility of growing food which the soup kitchens can best utilize, as well as working with the food pantries to see which vegetables are most likely to be eaten by their clients, and growing those, truly making the most of the harvest.
While final plans are being made for the farm, the need for volunteers grows as the program expands.
Those interested in donating money or produce, or in providing labor for gleaning or planting, can visit the organization’s web site and sign up for emails, which are sent regularly and highlight the opportunities available each week.
Currently, the corn harvest has been front and center, with volunteers gleaning between 4,000 and 9.000 lbs of sweet corn each gleaning session.
This “Corn-A-Palooza,” as it has been affectionately dubbed by GAR, generated 18,000 pounds of corn in one week.
Scheduled gleaning is being done at Peaceful Valley Orchards, as well as at Valley Crest Farm in Lebanon during August.
For updates on America’s Grow A Row, and to volunteer, visit: www.americasgrowarow.org.