Each year La Grande Middle School students grow a wide variety of flowers, herbs and vegetable starts in their school greenhouse. After their annual plant sale fundraiser there are usually several flats of plants that did not get sold.
In response, for the past two years Oregon State University Extension Service’s Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program Education (SNAP-Ed) staff have collected the unsold vegetable starts and distributed them to local food pantries as a welcome addition to the usual canned or boxed foods. In 2023, SNAP-Ed staff arranged for delivery of almost 400 vegetable starts to the North Powder Food Bank, the La Grande Senior Center Harvest Share and the Union Food Bank.
Many food pantry participants are often very happy to receive tomato, pepper, squash or other vegetable starts that they can grow at home to add to meals when the vegetables ripen. Gardening has also been shown to decrease levels of stress and anxiety which is an added benefit.
This year students are working out of a new, bigger greenhouse providing the community with more flowers and vegetable starts for their garden plots or containers, so likely there will once again be some leftover plants to share with community members at local food pantries.