Produce Donations

[Wildcat82]

Mom’s Mah Jong group soaks up a significant amount of my surplus tomato harvest. Average age of the group is probably 80, but their affinity for garden tomatoes is a 100. Wife’s various coworkers are the second or third biggest produce takers, especially cucumbers. The grown children and their spouses get their share. I now have a few folks that I can call and reliably get a yes answer to the question “you want some ____ from the garden. My “customer” base skews way towards the senior and geriatric community. Wife’s friend was over the other day and mentioned how sad her 92 year old dad was because he could no longer garden. “Here, take him some tomatoes and peppers”. I heard he was thrilled to get some garden produce. My daughter works for an oral surgeon in town and that office got a pile of tomatoes last season.

Older folks likely remember having a family garden where they raised a lot of their own food. On the other hand, younger people probably only have memories of being fed boxed food as kids. I think that's why older people are more appreciative of home grown food - they know what real food is supposed to taste like.

Last week I overheard 2 young women in HEB gushing about the strawberries in the fresh produce section, "Gosh, these strawberries are fabulous! Look how huge they are!" Hearing these clueless people blathering on about those rock hard baseball sized orbs gave me an eye-rolling chuckle. They have absolutely no clue what good strawberries taste like.

[worth1]

We grew giant tasty sweet strawberries in Missouri and Oklahoma.
I hated picking the darn things.
Back breaking work.
We would put sugar mixed home milked cows cream on them.
I won't buy berries at the grocery store.

[JRinPA]

I took comm garden strawberries to a picnic, fresh picked that morning. Someone else brought store bought. Guess which ones people took...well I got to bring a bunch home, I guess that is a win.
$7 a qt at redner's today. On sale. In June.

[Tormahto]

In years past I would give away buckets of tomatoes to my wives friends and a few neighbors. But this year I've changed things up. Every couple days I bring in tomatoes to a dozen doctors/nurses I know at Brook Army Medical Center. I figure not enough patients acknowledge how hard these people work. And besides, maybe some of these people will decide they need to they need to start their own garden next year. We could always use more gardeners.


I understand food banks won't accept fresh produce. Besides neighbors, where else do people here give away their excess production?



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You're giving to a great cause.

As for food banks not accepting fresh produce, that isn't entirely true, here. Our local food bank lost their use of a local building, as it was sold. So, they do a traveling food bank to some extent, possibly bypassing rules, by technically not running it officially. Unofficially, the same people get served, the same person runs the show, they work side-by-side some days at the "soup kitchen", and plenty of fresh produce is offered, on those days. I suppose neither group would take the responsibility of claiming that they are the group offering the fresh produce. With a bumper crop, I'd bring picked that day, and thoroughly washed, produce, at times.

[Ken4230]

What do I get in return? Smiles, thanks, compliments on the produce, “those tomatoes were great!” and once in a while a carton or two of fresh free range eggs as some of my customers are chicken ranchers.

I don’t screen for need basis, if they want some, that’s fine with me.

Good for you, I'm the same way. My grandparents had a 15-16 acre truck patch where they sold plants and finished produce. They also provided fresh produce for the church meals every Wednesday night. One thing I learned early on was that when you give something away, you give you best and you eat the culls.

Grandfather was a professional gardener, and the head gardener at a reform school in Indiana. He was pretty sharp, considering that this was in the late 40's. He was a softie and lots of times wouldn't charge people the full amount, if grandmother wasn't around. I take the library ladles tomatoes and also several people at church.

Have not taken anything to the food pantries, although we have one close by who provides almost 300 sit-down meals every day. They do not ask if you are needy, everyone is welcome. Plus meals for shut ins. The pantry just received a very large endowment so money is no longer a problem and will not be in the future. Our Church provides a lot of the drivers. The lady is doing God's Work and she is an absolute treasure.

[JayneR13]

I volunteer my skills working the garden for a local food pantry, and I first got to know them by bringing my extra fresh produce. I think it depends on the food bank whether or not they’ll accept that stuff. Several here will, gratefully.