MARYSVILLE — Tomatillos, radicchio and purple Brussels sprouts.
It sounds like gourmet farmer’s market fare but it’s what’s available this summer at the Marysville Community Food Bank.
Local gardeners from all over town are responsible for donating home-grown produce right when a bumper crop of hungry families needs it most.
So far, the food bank has received more than 2,400 pounds of fresh veggies and fruit — more than double the amount received by this time last year, said food bank director Joyce Zeigen.
The food bank needs every pea pod.
The number of people visiting the food bank began to climb last fall, right as the economy tanked. Now about 1,000 families visit every month. Many are new to the area or just out of work, Zeigen said.
The food bank relies mostly on donations from the community and nearly expired items grocery stores haven’t sold. This year many grocers seemed to be holding onto produce longer, she said. That means much of the fruit and vegetables the food bank receives arrives bruised or rotten.
“We are pushing for fresh produce,” Zeigen said. “What we get from grocery stores is on its last legs.”
In May, the food bank director made an appeal to the community: Plant extra and bring it to the food bank.
Marysville responded.
Home gardeners began arriving with bags of peas and squashes and lettuce.
Some of the largest contributions are coming from community P-patches and gardens.
Hundreds of pounds of vegetables and fruits came from a P-patch run by the Bethlehem Lutheran Church and high school students tending plots at Sunnyside Nursery.
The Snohomish County Master Gardeners have always brought produce from their demonstration garden at Jennings Park. This year they doubled their efforts and brought in a whopping 1,266 pounds as of Monday, said Michele Duncan, who helps organize the Master Gardeners efforts at Jennings.
They regularly fill a truck for the food bank every Monday.
“We haven’t even gotten to the winter squash yet,” she said.
The Jennings Park garden has always featured some vegetables, but this year the master gardeners experimented and mixed veggies with landscape plants.
They also planted more vegetables earlier this year in anticipation of the greater need, she said.
The Marysville food bank could still use fresh produce donations of just about everything, Zeigen said.
Even those Volkswagen-sized zucchinis get taken home.
Zeigen even created her own recipe for “Tortellini with Zucchini Pesto and Sundried Tomatoes” to give out at the food bank.
The food bank also needs volunteers willing to pick fruit from trees that other people in the community want to donate but can’t harvest themselves.
Debra Smith: 425-339-3197, dsmith@heraldnet.com.
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