What's New

Jody Bender – It’s not a job; it’s a passion

from Naperville Area Chamber of Commerce Women In Business: November 15, 2012 By: Erin Patti – Financial Advisor Jody Bender is the Community Relations Director at Loaves & Fishes Community Pantry; she loves to gather everyone together in order to provide for the well-being of others.  Day after day, she observes the generosity of Naperville in… Read more »


Garden volunteers glean harvest for Loaves & Fishes

from Naperville Park District: On Monday, October 15, 22 enthusiastic volunteers worked from 8:00 a.m. to 2:00 p.m. gathering vegetables left behind after the Naperville Park District’s Garden Plots were closed for the season. This year’s gleaning yielded over 680 lbs. of vegetables for Loaves & Fishes Community Services.  Master Gardeners Ron Ory and Logan… Read more »


Confronting Poverty – Helping the Poor through Tax Credits

from the Jewish Council for Public Affairs (JCPA): This time of year we hear a lot of rhetoric and debate about taxes from politicians and pundits. One topic missing from this debate, though, is a discussion of the tax credit programs that greatly benefit low-income families, mainly the Earned Income Tax Credit (EITC) and the… Read more »


Gardening Update: 2,500 pounds donated so far!

From Ron Ory, September 17: Some of you may have forgotten that months ago we started with a patch of dirt… Faced the hardships of slugs… Lack of nutrients in the soil… And usually found the rain gauge on empty… You probably pondered with other gardeners about our chances… But you kept going, planting, watering… Read more »


Naperville Community Gardening Update

from Ron Ory: Since the nights are now starting to cool, we planted four flats of lettuce started by Pat, and seen here being watered by Ellie: And the harvest continues: We’re over 2,300 pounds! Thank you, Master Gardeners and Naperville Community Gardeners! Published with permission from Loaves & Fishes Community Services Source.


Community Garden Update for August 27

from Ron Ory, Naperville Community Gardeners:   For those of you away for the weekend, we had our most significant rainfall of the year:  3.5 inches at the plots.   Yielding another 75 pounds of produce.  We’re averaging over 200 lbs per week.  We’re nearing 1,800 lbs for the season.  Do I hear 3,000?   We’re also adding some cut flowers, leaving enough for the birds and the bees. Our most prolific are cosmos   and sunflowers   We’ve also got some unusual ones, like this celoseus.   We’re not only doing good for the year, but lookin’ good, too!   Yay, TEAM!


1,700 Pounds of Fresh Produce and Counting!

August 26 update from Naperville Community Gardeners’ Ron Ory: Fifty pounds the hard way – no ten pound zucchini! We may not get any sprouts, but they do grow here! Likewise for tomatilloes. We’re at 1,700 pounds and counting. Great rain dance by Jan Hummel – too bad I didn’t capture it on film!


Making a Difference for Someone in Need

From Ron Ory, photographer for Naperville Community Gardeners: Sometimes one little tomato (or six): Or one big one: Can make a difference for someone in need: Putting us at 1,500 pounds for the year: Way to go Team! http://www.napervillecommunitygardeners.org/


Gardeners Update from the Flower and Garden Show

From Ron Ory:   Yeah, Team! We were curious how we were doing, at least on the quality, so we entered some of our produce, herbs and perennials in the Naperville Community Gardeners annual Flower and Garden Show. It’s free, so all it took was preparing the materials according to the show guide. We may not have gotten the big prizes, but we won lots of ribbons and Loaves & Fishes still got the produce! These are our beets, turnips, leeks and potatoes! Some of the tomatoes and squash we’ve been growing. Some of the perennial are from our garden.   That pumpkin was ours and got a blue ribbon.   Did Jan influence the judges?  She was helping as a clerk and got some tips for next year.   I’m still counting the ribbons and will report the results shortly. MEANWHILE, YESTERDAY’S DELIVERIES PUT US OVER 1,400 POUNDS FOR THE YEAR! (I may have to add another column to our POUND-O-METER, since it only goes to 3000 pounds.)   Results: We had 51 different entries, some items provided more than one entry. We received ribbons for 47 of the 51. Not bad for the first time and little preparation work. It provides a measure of how well we’re doing and a benchmark for next year, should we want to enter the show.


Community Garden Plot Harvest Update

from Ron Ory on August 8: We’re in full harvesting mode. It now takes at least two hours to harvest, wash and weigh each time. I thank the “weed” ladies and waterers for allowing me to pick. With today’s harvest we’re over 900 pounds and have just begun the prime season for tomatoes. Pictures: