How Master Gardener program pays off

Published 12:01 am Friday, November 20, 2009

On Oct. 12, two other Master Gardeners and I were working in the Julia V. Morris Garden in Monroe, a Master Gardener demonstration garden dedicated to growing food for the Sky Valley Food Bank.

As we worked, we observed a Hispanic family walk up to the food bank next door, hoping to get some provisions for the day. The food bank was closed—we assumed it was because of Columbus Day, as there was no notice on the door. The family looked confused and were obviously wondering what to do.

They saw us working in the garden and sent their young son, probably about 7 years old and the only one of the group who spoke English, to talk to us. He approached me and asked if the food bank was open. I said, “No, it’s not open today.” Fear and confusion crossed his face, and he glanced back at his family. I asked, “Do you need food, hon?” He hung his head, looked at his shoes and nodded mutely.

It was late in the harvest season, and we were starting to pull up frost-killed plants, preparing the garden for winter, but there were still some vegetables to harvest. Fortunately, those of us working in the garden didn’t know the food bank would be closed for Columbus Day either, and we had harvested quite a number of carrots, beans, beets, broccoli, lettuce, kale, garlic, onions, herbs, even a few potatoes, and some windowsill-ripened tomatoes from our home gardens to donate to the food bank.

When it became clear the food bank wasn’t going to open, we had been wondering what to do with the fresh produce. And then the hungry family came along. We were able to give this hungry family the makings of a nutritious vegetable soup that would see them through until the food bank opened again.

It was an extremely humbling feeling to ask a stranger — a child — if he was hungry and have him answer yes. It was an amazingly empowering feeling to have food to give him, to help this family meet their survival needs if only for two or three more days.

Working with the Master Gardener food bank gardens supports local food banks, and supports those in our community who are struggling to make ends meet in these harsh economic times. It also meets a need in me, to give back to my community, but to do it in such a way that supply immediately meets demand. To see the literal fruits of my labor all summer — planting the seed, watering, weeding, thinning, and eventually harvesting — go directly to the place where they were needed most, a hungry family.

I don’t have money, so I can’t afford to write a check to support a local charity, no matter how well-run and worthy it might be. What I do have is time and a desire to practice responsible farming techniques to support our community with good food and our environment with responsible stewardship. Master Gardeners taught me how to do that, and as a result, I was able to provide food for hungry people.

That is a clear, direct, tangible, easily documented, fast result of the county’s investment in Extension in general and the Master Gardener program in particular. Not all programs and charitable organizations can boast such low overhead and high impact.

What’s hard to measure is the total effect of the Master Gardener program in Snohomish County, because the ripples are still moving outward, continuing to improve lives in a real and immediate sense. Your decision to continue funding Extension will help us provide the community critical goods and services — and also practical education and valuable knowledge — at a time when they are sorely needed.

One last thing you need to know: Every harvest day this summer, when we carried our baskets of produce harvested fresh from the garden through the door into the food bank, the clients as well as the food bank volunteers cheered. And my heart soared.

Susan J. Spaulding lives in Everett.