Community Impact

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!

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!

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/

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.

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:

“All of their donated produce goes to Loaves & Fishes Food Community Pantry in Naperville, whose mission is to end hunger and empower lives. In June alone, they served more than 9,000 people, or 2,331 households and 4,051 children. “What beautiful produce and tremendous work by the Master Gardeners,” said Charles McLimas, executive director of Loaves & Fishes, in a letter to the group.” Read entire  Daily Herald article . Additional pictures:

Want to learn more about growing vegetables? Last year the Master Gardeners of DuPage County, along with other gardeners at Naperville Community Garden Plots contributed over 1,000 pounds of produce to Loaves & Fishes. This year they expect to double that despite it being another challenging growing season! Being a gardener is hard work, but rewarding. Pantry clients interested in learning more about growing veggies are welcome to visit the Garden Plots from 8 to 10 am, Mondays, Wednesdays and Saturdays. (Plots are located at 811 S West Street, Naperville, IL 60540.) The Master Gardeners of DuPage County are tracking donations as they harvest. Update from Ron Ory on July 24, 2012: You know these dog days have been around far longer than we should expect. All you want to do is find some shade and do some coffee clutching. Here was Tricia explaining her “weed” project to the volunteer weeders. That’s the way this Monday morning started for Jan Gricus and me. Just water, water, water. But then we had some visitors! One of the park district camp programs had us on their walk. The kids were eager to see how their (and our) vegetables were growing. Our pumpkins were the hit of the stroll! They also made our day! And we also had visitors of even a smaller variety: the bunny in the shade of yellow coneflower, the bee on liatris, dragonfly on black-eyed susan, and a yellow swallowtail on swamp milkweed. But as rewarding was the amount of veggies harvested and gleaned from the donation stand: 112 pounds–our single highest daily amount for the year! This brings our total delivered to Loaves & Fishes this year to 470+ pounds. Thank you all for a job well done!

Gardening can be fun and a healthy addition to any lifestyle. No one knows this better than the volunteers of the DuPage County Master Gardeners program offered through the University of Illinois Extension location in Naperville. Among the many efforts to educate and enhance our community, several members of this talented group have been managing a local garden plot located at the Kraft plant on Ogden Road in Naperville, only a short distance from Loaves & Fishes. Update from Dick Kaleba on July 18, 2012: To date we have harvested over 160 lbs of fresh produce from the Kraft Garden. Early in the year we were harvesting lettuce, radishes and spinach. Now that the hot weather is here, we are harvesting beans, beets, carrots, basil and the first tomatoes and summer squash. With succession planting we will plant more lettuce, radishes and spinach if it ever cools down. We projected that we could produce between 600 to 700 lbs and should be on track to see that. Remember, we only have 400 sq feet to work with and all of our produce comes from that little plot! Last year we harvested around 460 lbs. As Sally Mabbit said last year, “It’s the Little Garden that Could.” These pictures were taken recently:

During our last fiscal year (July 1, 2011- June 30, 2012), Loaves & Fishes Community Pantry helped nearly 1,500 single mothers of 3,500 children. From NPR, by Pam Fessler: Once a thriving railroad hub and factory town in southeast Pennsylvania, Reading has a poverty rate of 41.3 percent and is labeled America’s poorest city with a population of 65,000 or more. “Single mothers have an especially hard time getting out of poverty. Households headed by single mothers are four times as likely to be poor as are families headed by married couples. Still, many of these women are trying to get ahead. Some know instinctively what the studies show: Children who grow up in poor families are far more likely to become poor adults. These mothers often rely on a network of support — not just from food stamps, housing subsidies, welfare, or other government programs people usually think of. They also depend on charities, churches, family, friends, personal drive, ambition and even luck to stay afloat.” Read full article here .

Comments given by Executive Director/CEO Charles McLimans at the June 14, 2012 Day Without Hunger flag-raising ceremony: Loaves & Fishes Community Pantry celebrated our Fifth annual Day without Hunger on Thursday, June 14th. We chose June for Day without Hunger because it is National Hunger Awareness Month. The purpose of this event is to raise awareness of hunger in our community and reiterate a call to action to end hunger. Today, June 14th is also Flag Day.  The 4th of July is America’s birthday, but on June 14, 1777, the Continental Congress passed a resolution adopting the flag’s suggested design. The first Flag Day is believed to have originated in 1885 by a school teacher in Fredonia, Wisconsin named BJ Cigrand, when he arranged for the pupils of his school district to celebrate “Flag Birthday.” This year’s theme was Freedom from Hunger. Since the date we chose for our Day without Hunger coincided with Flag Day, we were inspired by our friends at the Exchange Club of Naperville to erect a flag pole, raise the Stars & Stripes over Loaves & Fishes, and celebrate a patriotic theme of Freedom from Hunger. The vision of Loaves & Fishes is ending hunger in our community, and we believe that Freedom from Hunger is an essential human right, an essential American freedom, and not a privilege. As one of our guest veteran speakers will tell us, adequate food is an essential element in society in order for democracy and freedom to flourish. We know that the United States is a land of plenty, and that here in the Midwest we inhabit the breadbasket of the world. Why then right here in DuPage County is 10% of the population food insecure (unable to obtain sufficient food through their own means), and why does one out of every five children fail to receive a sufficient quantity of food daily? This is unacceptable to us and, we know, to all of you as well. Our community agrees that hunger has no place here and that everyone deserves to be free from hunger. You all make the work of Loaves & Fishes possible through your generosity. At the end of this month as our fiscal year ends, we will have seen more than 27,000 family visits (over 100,000 persons represented in those visits)! This is a 70% increase over last year with our increased outreach to all of Naperville and DuPage County. We can say with a great deal of confidence that we are ending hunger and providing freedom from hunger to the multitude of friends and neighbors who rely on Loaves & Fishes as a primary food source for their families. Freedom from Hunger and Flag Day also provides a great opportunity for us to Salute our Veterans and Troops. I am thrilled to officially announce on this momentous occasion the latest collaborative service effort in our Pathways to Empowerment, our Veterans’ Services Program. Loaves & Fishes is proud to announce its newest partnership with the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs, to bring assistance to the veterans of DuPage County that are experiencing hardship. Jeff Willis, the Northern Division Supervisor for the Illinois Department of Veterans’ Affairs will be with us today during Day Without Hunger to provide information to our clients and our to our community about services available to veterans. Our primary focus will be to assist eligible veterans and their families with VA healthcare and VA benefits, as well as the new GI Bill for retraining veterans ages 35-60. However, all veterans who have served in the military will be interviewed to determine what support might be available for their individual situations. A certified VA representative will be at Loaves & Fishes regularly to meet with veterans, and all services are provided free of charge. Why is Loaves & Fishes providing Veterans’ Services? Our Pathways to Empowerment programs are designed and programmed in collaboration with partners. Loaves & Fishes provides a central point of service for partners to deliver their programs. Food is the anchor that brings all people together, as we must all eat in order to survive, even warriors! Loaves & Fishes’ reach extends into communities all throughout DuPage County. The existing veterans’ services network is woefully inadequate to serve the overwhelming needs of aging veterans and returning troops. They have given their all for us. We must do the same for them. Loaves & Fishes will work with the Department of Veterans’ Affairs to connect veterans with state and federal programs. In addition, we will enroll veterans in other programs sponsored by Loaves & Fishes in collaboration with partners such as Samaritan Interfaith Counseling Center and Fox Valley Institute for Growth & Wellness, where Dr. Laura Bokar is a noted PTSD expert. These programs will provide emotional support, along with job counseling and placement, financial education, and tax services, among other services. Did you know that DuPage County has the second largest population of veterans in the State of Illinois, behind Cook County? This must be an area of concern for all DuPage County residents, and Loaves & Fishes is proud to live out our mission and empower veterans and their families toward self-sufficiency. Food is and will continue to be our core mission and the anchor that unites our community, partners, and friends to find solutions to issues that prevent people from leading plentiful lives. None of us would enjoy Freedom from Hunger, or any other of the many freedoms we sometimes take for granted, were it not for the great sacrifices so many of our family, friends, and countrymen have made to preserve the principles, rights, and freedom represented and won by those who have fought and died under the Star Spangled Banner of the United States of America. Let us now stand as the American Legion Post #43 and VFW Post #3873 present the colors of our freedom. credit: Peter Hoffman Pictures of Day Without Hunger