TEMECULA: Garden Club project grows food to give away

Community invited to participate in 'Grow It Give It' campaign

By NELSY RODRIGUEZ - Staff Writer | Friday, October 10, 2008 11:05 PM PDT ∞

TEMECULA ---- Most people join the Temecula Valley Garden Club because they like to plant, nurse and watch their efforts bloom. But some hold themselves back from planting certain varieties.

"There's a lot of people in the club that don't really want to grow tomatoes (because) they get vines and vines and they don't have any place to store them," said Star Rausch, project coordinator of the Grow It Give It campaign. "So this is giving them an opportunity to use their skills, grow them and then give them away as produce."

Members of the Garden Club launched Grow It Give It for garden enthusiasts to grow fruits and vegetables and donate their harvest to one of several food pantries in the area.

In one week, the gardeners donated 150 pounds of grapefruits, 25 pounds of eggplants and 5 pounds of tomatoes.

During the group's first meeting after a summer hiatus, club members from Murrieta, Temecula, Winchester, French Valley and Fallbrook were given seedlings to plant during the cool season. Tomatoes, zucchini, carrots, cauliflower and broccoli were among the vegetables, which will be ready for picking this month.

The project is receiving support in part from Riverside County Supervisor Jeff Stone, who bestowed a $5,000 grant to be used to buy seedlings, as well as money to supplement the donations to the food pantries with produce that can be bought on sale at grocery stores.

"We were realistic that we're not always going to have a harvest," said Cheryl Peterson, vice president of the club. "This is a donation program, so we're going to have to get a lot of people on board and try to get a consistent weekly donation. That's going to be the big challenge."

The produce will be donated to St. Martha's Food Pantry in Murrieta and the Temecula Food Pantry in Temecula, Rausch said.

Cumulatively, seven local food banks give food to as many as 3,100 local families with as many as 11,000 children.

Sonia Strong, assistant director of family outreach at St. Martha's Food Pantry, said fresh produce is always in demand. Unlike canned foods that can be collected at any time and can sit on shelves indefinitely, produce must be given out as it comes in. And, she said, it's vital that people who are struggling financially eat as many healthful, fresh foods as possible to keep them in their best health.

Grow It Give It also includes an educational component, Peterson said, through which people can learn to plant and grow their own vegetables. Club members estimated that growing produce could reduce a grocery bill significantly.

"If we have a family that comes in and says 'I want to grow vegetables and fruits,' those are the people we're going to help," she said. "Feed your family first, and give the rest of it to the food pantry."

And organizers are hoping that the community as a whole gets involved.

"We're hoping that while the garden club is the umbrella of this project, we'll open it up to the community to educate them on how to grow their own produce and donate the proceeds in the process," Peterson said.

Contact staff writer Nelsy Rodriguez at (951) 676-4315, Ext. 2626, or nrodriguez@californian.com.

To get involved

Call the Temecula Valley Garden Club at (951) 600-8018, or visit www.temeculavalleygardenclub.org.