Food insecurity in the U.S.A. is a major crisis that has been further exacerbated by the Covid-19 pandemic. Many working poor struggle to put healthy food on the table and have relied on food pantries to supplement their cupboards for decades. Many food drives take place around the winter holidays, but how are the pantries supplied at other times of the year?
Harleysville, PA, Rotary Club member Carol Bauer, a former “military brat” whose family moved around a lot, settled in the Harleysville, PA area (a suburb of Philadelphia) in her teen years. She met her future husband in high school. His family always grew their own fruits and vegetables. She even learned how to can food so her family could eat produce from their garden year round. As her children grew they helped in the garden.
Growing up in a military family meant giving back to society and the local community wherever they were stationed. Carol continued this tradition with her own children. When she noticed that this food pantry didn’t stock any food for people with special needs such as diabetes or celiac disease (a condition her daughter has), she started a plan to get more fresh foods donated and to teach families how to grow their own food. She started with eight garden plots at a local church and clients from the local food pantry. Twenty-one families now grow their own produce.
In 2015 “The Garden of Health” (or G.O.H.) was officially established as a non-profit organization and could now accept monetary donations. From 2015 to 2018 Carol was solo in her effort to provide gluten-free, heart-healthy, vegan, and diabetic foods/ingredients along with fresh produce to the area food pantries. She also stored boxed and canned items in her home until the pantries were able to accept them.
It was about this same time in early 2018 that Carol was invited to set up at a table at a local health fair, when then-club President-Elect Gary Volpe (a local businessman) of the Harleysville Rotary Club, walked by her table and stopped to chat. Gary was so impressed with Carol’s determination and the need to get healthy food to food pantries, that he invited Carol to speak about G.O.H. at a weekly club meeting, and the rest is history! Carol became a club member very quickly and the club now has G.O.H. as one of its on-going and ever- evolving projects.In late 2018 a small one acre plot of farm land became available so Carol secured the plot which was large enough to build about 180, 3’W x 12’L raised beds. In the first year a handful of beds were built and mushroom soil was added. Produce was grown. The Harleysville Rotary Club sponsors an Interact Club at a local high school and members from that club and our own club volunteered to help. In the past few years, all 180 beds have been established and grow produce such as tomatoes, green beans, lettuce, peas, cucumbers, etc.
Carol has grown her “one woman show” into an entire board of volunteers, some of whom are Rotarians while others are friends who just wanted to get involved. As the garden grew so did the list of area food pantries. Each year the amount of food grown as well as donated to these pantries has doubled and with the Covid-19 situation the organization grew by 350% in 2020! All of this was achieved even though the organization’s main wholesale supplier had to curtail all donations due to Covid-19. To date, G.O.H. has distributed over 100,000 pounds of produce to
30+ food pantries, seniors at home, community meals, backpack programs, and individuals.
The Harleysville Rotary Club, via now Past Presidents Gary Volpe and 2020-21 President Daniel Watson-Bay, as well as current 2021-22 President Frank Romano donates funds and time to this project continuously. Gary Volpe’s business holds an annual charity fund raisers. G.O.H. was the recipient of about $14,000 in 2018! This funding helped to pay the lease on the land, purchase the pressure treated wood for the boxed raised beds, buy the soil and the seeds, etc. Another club member, Brenda Frederick, owns a trucking business which donates the use of its trucks to haul in and dump fresh soil.
The pandemic and shutdown of many food pantries in PA caused people to seek out Carol’s home to receive food. Knowing that couldn’t go on for very long, she had to find a location to store and distribute the healthy and much-needed food. Carol discovered a local warehouse and was able to lease it in late spring of 2020. The first “food drive-by” was set up for June 2020. Recipients did not have to show any “need” for the bags of food which contained items such as eggs, milk, cookies, and fresh produce. Volunteers from the club helped to direct cars into the drive through area and food bags were loaded into car trunks. This first event was posted to the club’s website and Facebook pages days beforehand, but very few cars initially came through. However, later in the day there were so many cars that a major traffic jam occurred for hours and the local police got involved!
Carol has learned how to apply for grants with the help of club member Shushma Patel (past club secretary). She also learned how to solicit local corporate businesses for charitable matching funds, and much more.
In 2021 the G.O.H.’s three year goals were to have more control over what is grown, to supply healthy foods to as many pantries as possible, and to lease a larger warehouse enabling them to become the healthy food bank for Montgomery County PA. These goals are now being met! A new much larger warehouse space hs been secured that will accommodate the G.O.H. effective 4/1/22 making it one step closer to becoming the healthy food bank for Montgomery and Bucks Counties and thus allowing for more donations. First Fruit Farms in Maryland, will be a new partner for produce throughout the growing season and their produce will be transported to the G.O.H. by the Share Food Program.
The G.O.H. also has a new eight-acre farm (donated by a local large business and the local township) and will be building the infrastructure for it in fall 2022. G.O.H. will also be incorporating honey bees to keep the crops pollinated. Honey will be harvested as a result. Three aquaponics greenhouses (think fish farms and produce) are in the works as well.
Carol would also like to have a paid employee to manage the warehouse and have a paid employee to drive a refrigerated truck. The Garden of Health is currently an all-volunteer organization.
As Carol says, “Your wealth should not dictate your health.”
Donations can be made by online on our website at www.gardenofhealthinc.org/donate or checks can be made out to Garden of Health Inc. and mailed to 201 Church Rd, North Wales PA 19454.
Written by:
Marsha Poust, Harleysville Club Secretary with Carol Bauer, Founder of The Garden of Health & Harleysville Club member.
Photos provided by Sandra Phifer, Harleysville Club Treasurer/Photographer and owner of Sandra Phifer Photography, LLC.