Plant a Row for the Hungry has been running longer than you have

If you have ever grown one extra tomato plant just to give the harvest away, you already belong to a movement older than most of us realize.

It started with one newspaper columnist and has moved more produce than any single food bank could grow alone. Here is where it came from, what it looks like in practice, and why one extra row matters more than it seems.

One row, one soup kitchen, one column

Plant a Row started in the early 1990s, when Jeff Lowenfels, a garden writer in Anchorage, Alaska, asked his readers to dedicate one row of their garden to Bean's Cafe, a local soup kitchen.

In 1995 the Garden Writers of America adopted it and renamed it Plant a Row for the Hungry, per Yakima Herald-Republic.

More than 20 million pounds of produce have been donated nationally under the Plant a Row name, which Yakima County Master Gardener coordinators put at more than 80 million meals, per Yakima Herald-Republic.

One backyard row, repeated by enough gardeners, adds up to millions of meals.

What it looks like when a county runs it right

You do not need a national office. In Winnebago County, Illinois, University of Illinois Extension Master Gardener volunteers have run their own campaign since the early 2000s.

Gardeners drop surplus produce at eight sites around the county, from the Extension office to a public library and a farmer's market.

Every site weighs what comes in, and organizers log thousands of pounds of fruit and vegetables every year, per University of Illinois Extension.

It is not glamorous, just a scale on a library table, and it adds up.

What it looks like when one person just starts one

In Chilliwack, British Columbia, Salvation Army volunteer Norm Deveau watched demand outpace The Pantry, the Salvation Army's free grocery program that feeds over 3,000 households.

So he built his own version and called it Plant A Row For Us: plant extra produce at home, then donate the harvest, per The Salvation Army.

The launch event drew about 80 people and featured tips from local master gardener Brian Minter, and organizer Josh Draheim set a goal of bringing in 100,000 pounds of food to The Pantry within the first year, per The Salvation Army.

Deveau did not wait for a national campaign. He just planted the idea himself.

Why the extra row matters more than it seems

According to Cornell associate professor Miguel Gomez, writing for the Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, the USDA estimates that 30 to 40 percent of edible food produced for human consumption in the United States goes to waste every year.

About 6 to 7 percent of planted acreage never even gets harvested, because of cosmetic blemishes, mechanical error, or a lack of a buyer. Meanwhile tens of millions of households lack reliable food access.

Gleaning and grow-to-donate programs sit right in that gap: they take food that would otherwise rot in a field or backyard, and move it to people who need it, per Cornell SC Johnson College of Business.

An extra row of green beans is a small, direct fix for a large problem.

Bottom line

• Plant a Row started with one Anchorage columnist asking readers for one row, per Yakima Herald-Republic.
• More than 20 million pounds of produce have moved under its name nationally, an estimated 80 million meals, per Yakima Herald-Republic.
• You do not need a national program: Winnebago County runs its own drop-off scales, and one Chilliwack volunteer built his own version, per University of Illinois Extension and The Salvation Army.
• An extra row addresses a real gap: 30 to 40 percent of edible food produced in the U.S. goes to waste every year, per Cornell SC Johnson College of Business.

Your zone

Zone 3-4: The program's own origin story sits in this band. Jeff Lowenfels started the first Plant a Row column drive in Anchorage, Alaska, per Yakima Herald-Republic.

Zone 5-6: Winnebago County, Illinois runs its Plant a Row drop-offs on the classic plant-a-row calendar for this band, collecting through the growing season into fall, per University of Illinois Extension.

Zone 7-8: [VERIFY: no zone 7-8 specific source opened this pass]

Zone 9-10: [VERIFY: no zone 9-10 specific source opened this pass]

Zone 11+: [VERIFY: no zone 11+ specific source opened this pass]

Sources

1. Yakima Herald-Republic, Yakima County Master Gardeners: Plant a Row for the Hungry
2. University of Illinois Extension, Plant a row for the hungry campaign in full swing
3. The Salvation Army, Plant A Row For Us Brings the Community Together to Fight Food Insecurity
4. Cornell SC Johnson College of Business, Gleaning to reduce food waste and food insecurity in America Photo: Harvest Donation (38381518156) by USCapitol from Washington, D.C., United States of America, Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File%3AHarvest_Donation_(38381518156).jpg Photo: Tomato flower (193581705) by Andy / Andrew Fogg from near Cambridge, UK, CC BY 2.0, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tomato_flower_(193581705).jpg