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Food initiative connects gardeners with food pantries

If you’ve got a garden and happen to have some extra tomatoes or zucchini, there’s a new program that will make sure it doesn’t go to waste.

Bonnie Plants has partnered with the nonprofit ampleharvest.org on the “Grow More Feed More initiative,” which encourages farmers to grow food to donate to food pantries.

“They’re looking for 10 million pounds of food to be donated by gardeners across America and that pantry is found by way of AmpleHarvest.org,” said Gary Oppenheimer, the founder of the website.

With a network of nearly 9,000 food pantries, Oppenheimer said the goal is to make it easy to donate and streamline how food insecurity is addressed — a problem impacting around 48 million people. It’s a mission anyone can help out with thanks to socially distanced drop-off sites.

“That keeps me the gardener and the pantry volunteers and the food all safe,” said Oppenheimer.

The goal he says is to help communities work together to support one another.

“It’s a great opportunity to reach into your backyard instead of your back pocket to help your neighbors in need,” added Oppenheimer.

Gardeners can visit AmpleHarvest.org’s website to find a pantry nearby.

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