The Big Idea
The idea for The Dinner Garden is a simple one. If people can grow their own food, they won't have to depend on public assistance for food support. Families who have food security are more productive, less stressed, and have more disposable income. We decided to start at the beginning: with the seeds. That was actually the easy part, since seeds are very cheap when you buy them in bulk. The challenge has been finding a way to distribute seeds to people all over the country. The cost of shipping the seeds to someone far exceeds the cost of the seeds themselves. To help save on the shipping costs, we have partnered with organizations all over the country to act as a distribution point for seeds in that area. We ship seeds to those organizations, then people in the area pick up seeds from them.
In an effort to broaden our impact and because we are committed to ending hunger and working with others to achieve this goal, we are sharing information we have with other groups who would like to provide similar services. Other organizations have approached us wanting to start their own seed distribution program based on The Dinner Garden Model. So, here is the short version of how we run The Dinner Garden. Feel free to use this information to provide seeds to people in your community. If you come up with an idea that is cheaper, easier, or just cooler, please let us know!
The Seeds
The Dinner Garden relies heavily on donations to stock our seed supply. When we do purchase seeds we buy them from www.mainstreetseedandsupply.com. Buying seeds in bulk is much less expensive than buying prepackaged seeds. No matter where we get our seeds, we repackage them for donation. The packs you can buy at the store contain more seeds than the average gardener will use in a year. When we buy bulk seeds, they come in packages containing thousands or hundreds of thousands of seeds. Depending on the type of seed, we package three to ten seeds of each plant for our clients. We package four to five plant varieties in each garden donation pack we create.
The Bags
We purchase our seed bags at www.papermart.com. We buy bags in two sizes:
Item # 1510223 2 X 3 2 Mil Clear Recloseable Poly Bag a case of 1000 costs $5.10
Item # 1510244 4 X 4 2 Mil Clear Recloseable Poly Bag a case of 1000 costs $9.00
We use far more of the small bags. We put the seeds in the small bags and write the name of the seeds on the bag with a permanent marker. Then we put the seed bags and a business card or computer printed information sheet into the bigger bag. The end product is very easy to manage.
The Business Cards
We buy our business cards at www.vistaprint.com They are inexpensive, fast, and do quality work. The cards have our logo, contact information, and our phrasing, "These seeds are a gift. Use them to grow food for your family and community." Some of our business cards are printed in both English and Spanish.