What is AmpleHarvest.org?
AmpleHarvest.org envisions an America where millions of gardeners eliminate malnutrition and hunger in their own community using only their backyard gardens”
AmpleHarvest.org Vision Statement
AmpleHarvest.org is a nationwide effort to diminish hunger in America by making it easy for millions of backyard gardeners, farmers and other growers across the country to quickly find local food pantries eager to receive freshly picked crops for their clients.
AmpleHarvest.org enables gardeners to find food pantries within a specified distance of their home and then view the pantries desired day/time for receiving donations.
AmpleHarvest.org also displays personalized driving instructions to the pantry as well as (if provided) a photograph of the pantry – making it easier to find.
Lastly, for the benefit of gardeners during a non-growing season or anyone else interested in making a donation, AmpleHarvest.org also provides pantries the opportunity to list store bought items they are in particular need of.
How It Works
Think of AmpleHarvest.org as a Google for America’s food pantries. Gardeners use AmpleHarvest.org to find a nearby food pantry, and they then take their excess garden produce or other food directly to the pantry. It is locally sourced food for neighborhood food pantries.
AmpleHarvest.org acts as a nationwide registry of food pantries and similar agencies enabling growers nationwide to find one in their community.
To make this work, AmpleHarvest.org uses a two tiered outreach program:
Informing Millions of Gardeners
AmpleHarvest.org works to educate, encourage and enable gardeners nationwide to donate their excess produce to a local food pantry.
Historically, gardeners did not know that they should donate their excess harvest, they did not know that they could donate their excess harvest and they did not know where to donate their excess harvest.
Registering Thousands of Food Pantries
AmpleHarvest.org works to educate, encourage and enable food pantries nationwide to receive excess produce from local growers.
Historically, many food pantries did not know that they could be found by members of the community with extra food. They did not know that they did not need refrigeration or extra storage to accept the food and they did not know how to reach out to their community to receive the extra food.
AmpleHarvest.org addresses and solves all of these challenges.
What We Do
AmpleHarvest.org strives to educate, encourage and enable millions of gardeners to donate excess food to local food pantries while also educating, encouraging and enabling thousands of food pantries nationwide to accept locally grown garden produce.”
The AmpleHarvest.org “Elevator Speech”
AmpleHarvest.org has been engaged in a massive nationwide education program to help America’s 40 million home gardeners learn about the opportunity to share their excess garden bounty with their neighbors in need.
- Thanks to a grant from Google Inc, we do nearly $10,000 per month worth of advertising on the Internet.
- We work with partners in the faith community such as the National Council of Churches to help church goers learn about their opportunity to donate food
- We encourage people across America to post AmpleHarvest.org fliers at local garden shops and nurseries
- Our extensive media coverage helps educate many more people about the opportunity to donate excess food
- When invited, AmpleHarvest.org founder Gary Oppenheimer does speaking engagements around the country, such as this one at Wharton.
- We create partnerships with organizations such as the National Gardening Association, the Green Education Foundation and Rotary International to help spread the word far and wide
What Your Food Pantry Needs To Do
AmpleHarvest.org’s core ideal is “No Food Left Behind”
The AmpleHarvest.org mantra
AmpleHarvest.org acts as a nationwide registery of food pantries and similar agencies enabling growers nationwide to find one in their community.
There are several things you and your food pantry can do to help the growers in your area become aware that you are eager for their excess produce.
- If your food pantry has a blog or newsletter or is possibly affiliated with a house of worship that has one, publish an article talking about your food pantry and your desire for fresh produce. A sample article is available for your use here.
- Print many copies of the flier (two sided) here and ask your staff and clients to post it at garden shops, nurseries, supermarket bulletin boards, etc. around the community. It will help gardeners learn that they can donate from their garden.
- Send a press announcement to your local newspapers, radio and TV stations announcing your participation with AmpleHarvest.org. A boilerplate press announcement is available for your use at here. You can download this Microsoft Word document, alter any text you wish and then send it out to nearby media. We sure would appreciate receiving a copy too (email it to info@AmpleHarvest.org)
- Ask a local reporter to do a story about AmpleHarvest.org. Tell the reporter they can find all the information they’ll need here.
- Please take a picture or video when you get a donation of locally grown produce and send it to info@AmpleHarvest.org. We’ll post them on our Facebook page as well as our web site and we’ll include the name and location of your food pantry if you like. It’ll be free publicity for your pantry!
- Lastly, please urge any other food pantries in your community to register at AmpleHarvest.org too. The more food pantries gardeners can find, the better the chance their ample harvest will end up at one of them.