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Thanks to the generosity of local gardeners throughout the Lehigh Valley,
Plant a Row Lehigh Valley has donated over 43,000 pounds of produce
to food-insecure families and individuals in Lehigh and Northampton Counties
Allentown, PA. (June, 5, 2022) – Plant a Row Lehigh Valley (PARLV) will begin its 7th season on Sunday, June 12, 2022. Season 7 will run through Saturday, October 8. PARLV was launched in 2016, as a chapter of the national Plant a Row for the Hungry program. PARLV is a grass roots organization of local gardeners who dedicate a row in their gardens and/or their surplus to donate to their neighbors in need. PARLV provides convenient drop off locations across Lehigh and Northampton Counties for gardeners to donate their produce. Volunteers pick up and transport the donations received to area food pantries, meal centers, soup kitchens and shelters. Even if you don’t have a garden, you can still contribute. Purchase extra produce at the grocery store or farmer’s market and bring it to a donation drop-off location.
Today, the PARLV program includes 326 registered gardens, 21 drop off locations, 3 additional non-drop off donation sites and 25 recipient organizations. We are working together to help supply fresh produce to food-insecure families and individuals every day of the week.
What is food insecurity? Feeding America defines food insecurity as “a lack of consistent access to enough food for every person in a household to live an active, healthy life. This can be a temporary situation for a household or can last a long time. Food insecurity is one way we can measure how many people cannot afford food.
According to the USDA, more than 38 million people, including 12 million children experience food insecurity in the United States.”
Sadly, the Lehigh Valley is no stranger to food-insecure families and individuals. On April 12, 2022, Stacker.com published an article on “Counties with the highest rate of food insecure children in Pennsylvania.” There are 67 counties in Pennsylvania. Stacker.com listed the top 50. Lehigh County came in at #47, with 11,690 food-insecure children. There are an additional 24,990 adults considered to be food-insecure in Lehigh County, for an overall food-insecurity rate of 10%. In Northampton County there were 7,380 children and 28,260 adults considered to be food-insecure, for an overall food-insecurity rate of 8.6%.
Help us to bring those numbers down. Visit our website to register your garden, find the nearest donation drop-off location, and/or learn additional ways to volunteer. If you have an hour or two a week, every other week, or on an as needed basis, check out our need for volunteer drivers. If you know of a good place for a drop off location, please contact us at: info@plantarowlv.org.
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Information provided to TVL by:
Karen Fitzpatrick
Plant a Row Lehigh Valley
https://plantarowlv.org/
