August 2009 Newsletter

This is The Dinner Garden's second newsletter. Please forward it to everyone you know!

We are now in the fall planting season, so contact us for additional seeds! Please email us at info@dinnergarden.org to request seeds and to tell us how your gardens are doing.

In the South, many states can grow a second spring crop, so try some more tomatoes, cucumbers, summer squash, beans, and peppers. In the fall, you'll have fewer problems with pests like mites, aphids, and squash borers.

In the North, and in another month or so in the South, you can plant cool weather crops like broccoli, cabbage, lettuce, carrots, parsnips, beets, spinach, collards, kale, mustard, peas, radishes, chard, and cauliflower. Most of these plants can survive frost. Just harvest them before you get a hard freeze! If you live in an area without freezing temperatures, like South Texas, you can grow this stuff all Winter long.

What's New?

To give you an update about our operations, the IRS granted us 501(c)(3) status. Donors are able to deduct their donations to us on their taxes. We appreciate everything all our donors and volunteers have done for us! Thank you!

To date, we have provided seeds to over 10,000 families. We now have seeds in 37 states.

Seeds for School Kids

Since launching our Seeds For School Program, we have sent 3600 Dinner Garden seed packs to the Arkansas Rice Depot. They will distribute seed packs to kids who only eat when they get a free meal at school. Our goal is to provide seed packs for the 25,000 kids they serve.

The seed packs cost us 25 cents to produce. Can you donate a quarter to give a hungry child enough seeds to start a garden for their family? Go to Seeds for School Kids to learn more about this program.

Five Dollars Feeds a Family

We launched a new program called Five Dollars Feeds a Family. For a donation of $5 to this program, we will provide enough seeds to grow a year's worth of fruits and vegetables for 7 adults. Read more about the program at Five Dollars Feeds a Family.

Distribution Sites

We now have seed distribution partners in Idaho, Indiana, Minnesota, Montona, North Carolina, Utah, and Virginia. These partners give away our free Dinner Garden seed packs to anyone in their area who wants them.

We want to welcome our newest distribution site, the Farm to Family Magic Veggie Bus in Richmond, Virginia. This mobile farmer's market travels all over Richmond, bringing fresh produce to offices, churches, and neighborhoods. You can read all about them at www.farmtofamily.com.

Our distribution sites allow us to do two things. First, it gets the seed packs into the hands of those in need. Second, it saves us a great deal on postage. If we sent seed packs to 300 individuals, we would spend $192 in postage. By sending 300 seed packs to one distribution site, we pay $9. If you would like to see our distribution sites, go to our Contact Page.

Why We Exist

In the United States, in a typical school classroom full of 30 people, 3 of them regularly miss meals because they don't have enough food in their home. Think of places you go where you see 30 people: your office, on the bus, on the subway. 3 of those people are hungry now. And they will be hungry tomorrow. And next week. They live with hunger.

To fight hunger, in a significant, long-lasting way, The Dinner Garden helps people grow their own food. We provide seeds, gardening supplies, and gardening advice free of charge to all people in the United States of America. We assist individuals and families in producing enough food, so they will never have to skip a meal because their refrigerator or pantry is empty. We help them plant home, neighborhood, and community gardens, so they can stock their homes with fresh fruits and vegetables.

Our goal is to provide beginning to end support for our gardeners, from seed to harvest, so they can successfully grow food in their homes and communities, prepare or preserve their produce, and donate or sell their excess fruits and vegetables.

Food Preservation

Food preservation has been around for thousands of years. Whether the food is dried, salted, sugared, or pickled, the end result is the same: food that can last for many months instead of a few days. Take your preserved food and can it, and you'll have food that can last for years.

Since we're at the time of year when harvests are coming in, the time for preservation is here. We have a few recipes on our Preservation Recipes Page to get you started. Check out our Pickled Watermelon Rind Recipe. If you haven't had pickled watermelon rind, you're in for a treat. They are sweet and spicy with a nice zing to them. Pickled watermelon rind is eaten in the Southern United States and throughout Asia. In the South, recipes lean towards sweet, while in Asia, they are spicy, hot, and loaded with vinegar.

Donate Today!

Make a donation with paypal or send your donation by mail to The Dinner Garden, P.O. Box 700686, San Antonio, Texas 78270-0686. Your donations are tax deductible.

Fundraising

The Dinner Garden needs your help! Think of 10 people you know. Friends, co-workers, members of your church or temple. 1 of them doesn't have enough food to eat on a regular basis. They need our help. To help them, we need to get much, much bigger.

We have a fund drive you can host yourself called A Quarter and a Pack of Seeds. If you visit the link, you'll find information and downloads for hosting the drive. We ask people to donate a quarter and a pack of fruit or vegetable seeds. The quarter pays for a Dinner Garden seed pack, containing 5 or 6 varieties of fruit and vegetable seeds. The donated pack of seeds helps someone grow a garden in the future. So it's a donation for now and for later.

We are also approaching foundations and companies for grants and corporate partnerships, so if you can help us in this venture, please contact us at holly@dinnergarden.org.

Prayer, meditation, and good wishes on behalf of The Dinner Garden and our gardeners are always appreciated too!

Vegan Recipes

Jacqui Schlosser created these tasty vegan recipes for The Dinner Garden.

Eggless Egg Salad

• 1 block of Light Firm tofu - drained and pressed
• 1/2 cup - 3/4 cup of Vegan Mayonnaise
• 4 stalks celery, chopped
• 1 red bell pepper, chopped
• 2 carrots, chopped
• 1 tsp turmeric
• 1/4 cup Rawmesan
• pepper to taste
• dry basil to taste

In a big bowl combine veggies. Crumble the tofu on top of the veggies. Add the vegan mayonnaise and combine it with the veggies and tofu. Add turmeric for color along with pepper, Rawmesan, and basil. This dish is wonderful in a pita with tomatoes or on a salad. Enjoy!

You can see more vegan recipes here.

We love our friends!

Our special thanks to Nematode Nick's Organic Landscaping Company who has done a great deal to spread the word around San Antonio about our mission. We are also extremely grateful to Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds for their continued support of The Dinner Garden. Thank you!

The Dinner Garden has been fortunate to receive support from these businesses: Granny's Heirloom Seeds, HEB, Katz and Company, The Texas Department of Agriculture, Ample Harvest, Sakata Seed, Members of the Texas Nursery and Landscape Association, Members of the San Antonio Herb Society, , The Greenhouse Catalog, Wal-Mart, and Dean and Julie from Nelson Plant Food.

We have also received donations of money, postage, gardening supplies, and seeds from individuals who support our mission. Thank you so much!

New Kids' Stuff!

Go to our Kids' Page to find a bunch of new puzzles and coloring pages. Our volunteer, Rachel Neyrey, put these together. They are fun and all about gardening. Feel free to print them to use at home, school, or daycare!

TDG is on Facebook!

Connect with us on Facebook and Twitter. You can also follow our progress in our blog, www.dinnergarden.blogspot.com. You can stay up to the minute on all the exciting adventures of The Dinner Garden staff and volunteers!

123 Partnership

The Dinner Garden has partnered with two organizations, World Food Garden and Ample Harvest to provide support to our clients and to promote food security for all. We are calling it our 123 Partnership.

For Step 1, The Dinner Garden provides free seeds, gardening support, and advice to individuals, families, and communities.

For Step 2, World Food Garden provides gardening tutorials, planting information about what and when to plant, seed swaps, and introductions to gardening mentors. Between the two of us, we will make sure your garden has the best chance of success!

Finally, for Step 3, Ample Harvest connects gardeners with local food pantries, so we can all donate what we don’t use to people in need.

With this partnership, we are helping people successfully garden to produce food for their families and communities, so everyone has enough to eat.

Meet Sean!

Sean Hirshberg is the Chief Operating Officer of The Dinner Garden. He has a Bachelor of Science in Computer Science from the University of Maryland and is a graduate candidate at Benedictine University in Chicago, Illinois. He has over 20 years of work experience with 12 of those years in the financial industry. He has worked as a project manager and business analyst on numerous large projects for Wachovia Securities, Scott & Stringfellow, Riordan Consulting, and Stanford Financial.