Donating Produce to the Bellingham Food Bank

It’s a common misconception that food banks only accept donations of canned food. Food banks actually accept a wide variety of foods, including fresh produce.

The Bellingham Food Bank encourages donations of fresh produce, an important source of nutrients for the 8,000 people served by the food bank per month. In an effort to increase the amount of fresh produce received the Bellingham food Bank runs three projects; The Food Bank Farm, the Small Potatoes Gleaning Project, and Victory Gardens.

The Small Potatoes Gleaning Project reorganized in April, assigning seven volunteers as Gleaning Captains to coordinate backyard gleans in specific Bellingham neighborhoods. Greg Hope is the Gleaning Captain for Columbia, Birchwood, and Cornwall Park. See his feedback on volunteering below.

How you can help:

Donate:

• The Small Potatoes Gleaning Project collects home-grown sources of fresh food from gardens and fruit trees that would otherwise go unused. If you would like to donate plums, apples, etc. from a tree in your yard, but need help harvesting it, The Small Potatoes Gleaning project will provide volunteers, tools, and transportation to complete the harvest for you. (Call to request a visit to your home 360-676-0410)
• The Victory Gardens program encourages home gardeners to donate their surplus produce. If you have grown too many tomatoes, zucchini, etc. for you to put to use yourself, you can donate your extra supply by dropping it off at the food bank.
• You can also donate purchased produce by dropping it off at the food bank. (M-F 8:30 a.m. to 4:00 p.m.)
  

Volunteer:

• The Small Potatoes Gleaning Project and the Food Bank Farm rely heavily on the labor of volunteers to bring in local sources of produce. Volunteers with the Small Potatoes Gleaning Project make home visits to harvest fresh food from gardens and fruit trees. Volunteers with the Food Bank Farm participate in farm labor and harvesting.

Comments from Gleaning Captain Greg Hope:

"Small Potatoes provides our volunteers [with] opportunities to learn more about where our food really comes from through farm gleans, to strengthen the bonds of community through backyard gleans, to acknowledge the reality [that] many residents of the city we live in cannot count on access to adequate healthy food."