Good Food Garden

We think local food production is important.

Growing food locally just makes sense. There are a variety of local producers in McDonough County growing produce and raising animals, and you can get fresh produce at the Farmers Market, the Macomb Food Coop, and sometimes at the local groceries. But for many people who use our pantry, those sources may be out of reach.

Much of the produce we get for our pantry comes from River Bend Food Bank and is donated food from large grocery chains. This is food that has been grown somewhere far away, and while still usable, is not always the freshest.

This year we are piloting a garden of our own. We are partnering with the Macomb Community Gardens and have a 1,500 square foot plot where we are raising tomatoes, peppers and a few odds and ends. The Community Garden is allowing us to garden in their space rent free. Thank You!

Our garden this year is a pilot to see how much time and effort it takes and how much it produces. When you are serving 1,500 people, that is a lot of tomatoes. At the very least, this year we will have some supplemental offering for our pantry users. Our garden is a production garden, not necessarily a pretty garden, but hopefully one that produces a lot of food. We all know, a fresh Illinois tomato just can’t be beat.

We are tracking costs and weighing the produce that we harvest to see if this is something we want to do again, maybe on a larger scale, next year.

For those gardeners in McDonough County, we welcome donations of your surplus produce. We are already getting donations every week from the University of Illinois Extension - Macomb Master Gardens. They are providing fresh produce from their garden, thank you!

If you would like to donate surplus produce from your garden, please give us a call, 309-255-4710.

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