Trust Me--You Can Do a Ton (Easy as Pie)

It started with a small voice in my head nagging me in my kitchen garden.  What if I could grow a ton of food?  (Click here to view.)

I didn't know then the door I was opening: that I would meet the people with whom I would help start a community garden, directly across the street from a food pantry, or that my new friends and I would go on to donate not one but two tons within the next two years, plus start an additional garden right at the food pantry, where the clients themselves harvest each week.  

And now, as growing-pain changes happen at the community garden,  I find I want to secure a ton for hunger in diverse ways to ensure its continuity, and to help reach the goal I've always had to provide 100% of the people who come to the food pantry each Wednesday (about 100 families) with something fresh and healthy.   

The "gift of this challenge" gives me the opportunity to show you, really, how easy it is to donate a Ton for Hunger in your community.  And maybe together, you and I and others will donate 10 tons this year, or 20, or 100.  

So, here's the math:

A Ton for Hunger = 2,000 pounds

2,000 pounds = 4,000 8-ounce bags of lettuce or cooking greens

2,000 pounds = about 4,000 meaty tomatoes

2,000 pounds = about 4 trees full of pears

2,000 pounds = 50 pounds per week x 40 weeks

2,000 pounds = 50 gardeners each donating 1 pound per week x 40 weeks

2,000 pounds = 50 40-pound boxes of potatoes, apples, or zucchini being thrown out by a supermarket

So, you can try to donate 2,000 pounds from one source, but that makes you vulnerable to changes beyond your control.  OR, you could do this:

* 250 pounds from community garden

* 250 pounds from church or school garden, or maybe the farmers market

* 500 pounds from home gardeners in your community

* 500 pounds from 1 pear tree (see 1 Pear Tree. 1 Hour.  567 Pounds for Those in Need)

* 500 pounds from supermarket waste

That's 2,000 pounds, easy as pie (pear pie). This suddenly seems doable, doesn't it?  Like, now, this year.

Some suggestions:

1. Have fun (this matters more than you may realize). 

2. Trust the journey.

3. KEEP IT SIMPLE.  You won't believe how people want to complicate this.

4. Throw a wide net.  You will be surprised who gets interested in joining you.

5. Use social media.  It is powerful.  Show pictures.  Show a thermometer keeping track of pounds (just Google it--you'll find one).  Start a blog (like my new one for this year's initiative: 50 Gardeners).

6. Let leaders emerge, and then get out of the way.

7. Recognize and accept the good that comes, in all its forms.

Don't get hung up on forever.  Just do what you can for today.   Trust me--you can do a ton.

See Operation Plant a Row 2012 (on Pinterest, my new favorite thing) for tips and inspiration to get you going (growing).  And let me (and Garlic Lady, pictured--you forgot about her, didn't you?!) know if you're going to do this--we'd love to follow along.

And remember the words of my friend, Bob (pictured with the carrot), when you worry about mistakes or things not working out.  "It's just dirt." (See Just Dirt here--click on the cached version--for tips for cities, citizens, and companies to grow food, knowledge, and community.)

Trust Me--You Can Do a Ton (Easy as Pie)