The “Grow A Row” garden has taken root and is actually growing. As two professed “brown thumbs” this is a pretty major accomplishment. One week after it was planted, there were already little plants sprouting up. The garden has carrots, radish, sun flowers, peppers, tomatoes, Cilantro, onions, and mint.
In case you’re wondering what the garden is all about, we’ve reprinted the article from June’s issue of Kingston East News. We apologize that the article was cut off in June, so here’s the full story.

Grow A Row

17% of Kingstonians live below the poverty level. Many have no idea where their next meal is coming from and too many have to chose between paying rent and eating regularly. The food bank helps out by providing as much nutritious food as possible, but their supplies are dependent on the generosity of volunteers and donations. Now you can help fill hungry tummies too, with a new program from Loving Spoonful called Grow A Row.

Grow A Row encourages everyone who plants a garden to add an extra row of vegetables to donate to Loving Spoonful. If lots of people do a little, the result is a lot of nutritious food to help less privileged people in the city. Loving Spoonful is responsible for distributing the food to organizations like Martha’s Table, the Salvation Army, the Kingston Boys and Girls Club and the Foodbank.

Loving Spoonful’s Coordinator, Susan Belyea said, “Even if people don’t have a garden, they can participate. It’s as easy as growing a tomato plant in a pot on their deck or balcony. It’s all about a lot of people doing a little.” And if you’re wondering what to plant, Susan suggests carrots, onions, squash, tomatos, peppers, herbs, beans, or peas.

When your vegetables are ready to pick, you can drop them off at the Food Bank at 140 Hickson Ave. or on Saturdays at the Farmer’s Market downtown. Loving Spoonful will have a booth near the back of the market where you can drop off your vegetables.

So what does this have to do with Kingston East? We’re generous. So let’s help the hungry. Do your part and you could be featured in Kingston East News. Send a picture of you in your garden or with your harvested vegetables that you’re donating and we’ll put your picture in the paper.

And what is the staff at Kingston East News doing to help out? We’re going to plant our very first garden and donate the vegetables to Grow A Row. It will be an interesting experiment since none of us are gardeners.

We’ll keep you updated month by month and let you know how things are growing.