NATURE, HISTORY AND HORTICULTURE IN FAIRFAX COUNTY
VOLUME 11, NO. 1 SPRING 2011
Growing and Giving Back By Lori K. Weinraub, Park Authority Volunteer
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Gleaning the Good in People through Gardens
t the end of Julie Mendoza’s first season as a Fairfax County community garden plot renter, she couldn’t help but notice all of the tomatoes. Many of her fellow renters at McLean’s Lewinsville Park in 2009 had extra tomatoes languishing on the vines. Such a shame in this economy, thought Mendoza, who gardens because she loves food and loves to cook. She saw an opportunity to share the extras with people who need food and who would appreciate fresh produce. The logical step was to find a local food pantry, said Mendoza, who works on Capitol Hill when she’s not gardening. She contacted the Fairfax County Park Authority, which oversees the Community Garden Plot program at nine parks, to get the ball rolling. The county’s Garden Plot Coordinator, Pam Smith, also saw the opportunity. A volunteer herself at Food for Others, Smith met people who wanted fresh produce, not the canned and processed goods that are a staple of food banks. She had seen a lot of wasted produce when she inspected the plots, which is part of her job.
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he farmers who sell their produce at the county’s Farmers Markets are generous to food banks. One organization that helps the hungry, Food for Others, gleaned almost 8,000 pounds of fresh produce from markets in Annandale, Fairfax and McLean in 2010, according to executive director Roxanne Rice. “We all appreciate the high quality and good value offered by the fresh produce,” Rice said, adding that the organization’s clients often go for the fresh food first. She said she would welcome donations from garden plots as well.
Smith told Mendoza, “Let’s work together.” In July 2010, The Gardeners’ Share was born. It was created by the gardeners at Lewinsville to contribute a portion of what they individually grow to their local food pantry, SHARE of McLean, according to
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Generosity from Farmers Markets
The Park Authority hosts nearly 700 garden plots at nine county parks in its Community Garden Plot program.
Farmers Market Coordinator Phyllis Ingram said the program pretty much runs on auto-pilot, driven by the farmers’ desire to donate. One farmer who sells at the Burke Farmers Market contacted Ingram last year because that market had no gleaners, and she said she would rather give away her extra produce than throw it on the compost pile.
Fairfax County Park Authority • Fairfax, VA 22035 • 703-324-8695 • Fax 703-324-3996 • TTY 703-803-3354 • www.fairfaxcounty.gov/parks/resources