Gardening to Reduce Hunger

Friday, December 30, 2011

Gardening to Reduce Hunger

According to AmpleHarvest.org, "an estimated 100 billion pounds of food, enough to totally eliminate hunger, is thrown away annually in the United States." AmpleHarvest.org is working with food pantries to help put extra produce to work helping to feed those who are hungry, improve health, and help the environment.

There's a nice tool on the website to help gardeners find food pantries near their home that accept donations of extra food. You can search by zip code to find contact information for these local organizations.

And since we live in a litigious world, I wanted to look into the potential liability considerations. USDA.gov provides a link to the Good Samaritan Food Donation Act passed during the Clinton Administration that addresses the issue. Here is an excerpt from the USDA website:

A person or gleaner, shall not be subject to civil or criminal liability arising from the nature, age, packaging, or condition of apparently wholesome food or an apparently fit grocery product that the person or gleaner donates in good faith to a non-profit organization for ultimate distribution to needy individuals.

(I hesitate to add the following, but feel that I must.)

I am not a lawyer. I don't play a lawyer on TV and I didn't sleep in a Holiday Inn Express last night (badumbump), so please do your own due diligence regarding the potential liability issues.

Eating For Energy - Raw Food Diet For Weight Loss

1 comment:

garyDecember 31, 2011 at 10:04 AM
You don't need to be a lawyer... please visit http://ampleharvest.org/gardener-faq.php#ill for a simple answer.

Federal law protects people to donate food to local food pantries.
ReplyDelete
Replies

Add comment

Amateur Hydroponic Tips for Deep Water Culture

1. Wash your hydroton before using it. I didn't do that in my first project and ended up with a film of clay dust throughout the water chamber in my deep water culture bins.

2. Adjust your lighting before planting. It's very difficult to make adjustments after you've planted when using deep water culture.

3. Use a commercially produced nutrient. DIY is great for most things, but why not take advantage of professional research and development to flatten the initial hydroponic learning curve?

4. Shop around for the best prices. Some hydroponic shops are "friendlier" than others and it follows that some have lower prices than the competition.

5. DIY is cheaper than paying full retail for a "kit" system. You can look around on the Internet and find several examples at inexpensive, but effective hydroponic growing systems you can assemble yourself.

6. Buy a commercial quality air pump for aerating your deep water culture beds.

7. Kick start your basement hydroponics by maintaining temperatures at optimal levels for the vegetables you're growing.