On a warm afternoon last week a garden on Wax Orchard Road hummed with activity: One woman planted sunflowers; one more stopped by to help plant broccoli, and a man dropped in and headed off to mulch.
All of this work was in support of the Vashon Community Food Bank Farm, a sunny acre that has produced 6,000 pounds of fresh produce each of the last two years under the guidance of a half-time farmer and a host of volunteers. The farm is expected to equal or surpass that harvest this year.
According to food bank Executive Director Yvonne Pitrof, the farm, as well as a 7,500-square-foot garden at the food bank, are part of a nationwide effort food banks have undertaken to increase the nutritional value of the food they provide.
“It doesn’t get much better than fresh produce,” Pitrof said.
Not every food bank has the room to grow its own food, of course, but doing so has become a part of the fresh-food effort.
“Any food bank that can get its hands on land to do it is doing it,” she said.
This year marks the third growing season for the farm, on a plot of land Amy Greenberg and Chris Robison own and have given over to the food bank’s effort. Food bank farm and garden manager Jenn Coe credits the couple and a multitude of volunteers with helping this program thrive.
Earlier this spring, when the growing season was just beginning, about a dozen volunteers helped start several plants through the foster seedling program, which Coe began last year. She supplies seeds and supplies, and volunteers start vegetables in their greenhouses or on their windowsills.
“It’s a huge contribution,” Coe said. “It’s really critical to the program.”
New this year — and an indication of the just how important the farm and garden have become to the food bank — is a paid apprentice program. One newly hired apprentice works eight hours a week at the farm, and another will soon be hired to work at the garden, according to Coe.
The experience will provide a small amount of income and teach people important food-growing skills, Coe said, as well as give her consistent help throughout a labor-intensive growing season.
“My goal is to feed people,” Coe said. “It doesn’t need to be me doing that.”
Last week apprentice Shawna Herrmann planted seeds, raked beds and helped plant the broccoli starts while she talked about the farm and her new role there.
“I’ve already learned so much,” she said. “I love working outdoors. I love plants. On top of that, I am getting to do something to help people.”
Her efforts will support several crops at the farm this year, including spinach, beets, chard, kale and cabbage. At the farm, Coe and others plant en masse, with a focus on fall and winter produce and growing enough to feed all those who rely on the food bank. At the garden, they are more experimental, Coe said, and choose plants for a summer harvest, such as tomatoes, strawberries, cucumbers and zucchini, and if they have space, they will happily plant a flat of something new that a volunteer might contribute.
As in home gardens, sometimes certain crops are prolific and provide more than can be readily used. When that is the case, the surplus is donated to the White Center Food Bank, which has gardens of its own but not a sufficient crop to feed the numbers of people who rely on it. Audrey Zemke, the volunteer coordinator at the White Center facility, called the produce from Vashon “an extreme help” because produce is so expensive for people with low incomes.
“It’s lovely to get fresh produce from them,” she said.
Helping plant the broccoli last week, food bank board member Carol Butler, who volunteers at the farm weekly, voiced her support for giving food to White Center, which has a much larger low-income population than Vashon and served nearly 5,000 individuals in April alone.
“Every food bank is not equal,” she said. “Their resources are not the same.”
Because Vashon is rural and has the land and a strong volunteer base, it can do what some other food banks cannot — and then share the abundance.
“We’re a vast network,” Butler said. “When we produce food, we feed people who need food.”
Both Pitrof and Coe encourage people of all skill levels to volunteer. Large groups have been helpful, Coe noted, including the Vashon Rotary Club, which set up the two 80-foot hoop houses in half a day. Individuals and small groups, including families, are welcome too. Extra hands are needed not just in the summer months, but also in the winter for harvesting cold weather crops. Groups should schedule a time to come by, Coe said, but people are also welcome to stop by Tuesday and Thursday afternoons, even if they have only a short amount of time to spare.
“There is always something to do,” she said.
At the food bank, the recession and lingering economic problems continue to mean that many Islanders need the support of the food bank, Pitrof said. On average it serves 200 households a week, with fewer needing help at the beginning of the month and more at the end.
For her part, Hermmann, a food bank client herself, knows the farm and garden produce is a welcome sight when it arrives on the food bank shelves.
“A lot of people assume that lower income people don’t really care about healthy food. I think that is a big misconception,” she said. “People who go to the food bank really appreciate fresh produce.”
