There are more ways to get involved!
Community FarmShare supports a number of additional local farm and food systems
related initiatives that bring nutritious food to families.
Plant an Extra Row
A community initiative in cooperation with Sustainable Barnesville.
The Plant an Extra Row initiative was started by Sustainable Barnesville in cooperation with WUMCO in the Spring of 2020 with the rise of the COVID 19 pandemic. The project encourages and supports those with backyard farms and gardens to “plant an extra row” of your commonly grown veggies and to donate those to your local food pantry. As a very local community initiative, Plant an Extra Row generally supports backyard gardeners and growers in the upcounty communities of Barnesville, Beallsville, Dickerson, Poolesville, and Boyds in order to best manage the logistics of picking up and delivering produce donations*.
Whether you are starting a new garden or expanding your current plot, we’ll help make donating your extra produce easy.
In the center of Poolesville, there is convenient cold storage drop off location where growers can drop their home grown bounty. From here, the produce will be sorted, bagged and brought to WUMCO and The Little Free Pantry as needed, and surplus will be delivered to other food assistance providers.
If you are interested in learning more, please fill in the contact sheet by clicking on “I’m interested” below.
* If you live outside of the Poolesville area and are interested in donating your garden extras to foodbanks, we suggest reaching out to Harvestshare (www.harvestsharemd.org) which carries out similar initiatives in other locations throughout the county.
Local Farms, Community Gleanings
What is gleaning? Field gleaning is the collection of crops from farmers’ fields that have already been harvested or fields where it is not economically profitable to harvest…. but there is still good food out in those fields! While gleaning first started as an ancient practice, it continues today, and given the increasing attention focused on food waste, the movement is growing.
Our gleaning program invites you out into the beautiful fields in the Agriculture Reserve to harvest food for our neighbors in need. Depending on your experience level in harvesting, we’ll provide the necessary training on site for the produce to be harvested and handled correctly as directed by the farmer.
Community FarmShare’s gleaning program partners with Community Food Rescue’s food recovery efforts. The bounty from our day of gleaning will be offered to the local pantry closest to the farm where we glean and to Manna Food Center for further distribution.
If you want a hands-on opportunity to provide the healthiest, freshest produce to food insecure families in our communities, AND enjoy a safe, socially distanced day outside in one of the most beautiful areas of our county, please click below to contact us.