Volunteers work to provide fresh produce to food pantries

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. -- As a young child during the Great Depression, Jefferson City resident Jack Ryan and his family took in homeless wanderers at their small farmhouse, feeding them before they hopped back on the nearby train and headed toward their next destination.

Although the country faced its worst economic struggle, the Ryans, a family of 11, lived off the land and shared their food with the needy knocking on their door, the Jefferson City News-Tribune reported.

"Mom always found something to feed those guys, and that stuck with me," Ryan said.

Ryan, now 85, is leading an effort to provide fresh produce to local food pantries. The NEEED project, which stands for Nutrition, Environment, Education and Economic Development, is in its second year.

Ryan and volunteers have connected with several local food pantries, giving them vegetables grown without the use of pesticides or chemicals.

That's a point Ryan said he's proud of, especially with the garden growing a surplus of produce.

"My vision of the garden is one that is commercial-style -- it's not your backyard, family-type garden, but the image is entirely different," Ryan said. "I want to strive for efficiency and organic food production that is feasible on a commercial scale."

While he has a dream to grow the garden, the NEEED project is throwing out more food than it's giving away -- about five times more, Ryan estimated.

There aren't enough active volunteers to distribute the produce to pantries, he added, but pantry organizers are welcome to come to the garden on Big Horn Drive and pick vegetables, including tomatoes, turnips, squash and cauliflower.

"I want to say to the food pantries: 'You want good, fresh, organically grown produce -- come get it,"' he said.

The NEEED garden is not alone in the distribution challenge.

Darren Chapman, a University of Missouri graduate student in an interdisciplinary food security program, said pantries often don't have the space or resources to store and chill produce, which could require refrigerated trucks and refrigerators.

And to ensure food pantry clients don't receive outdated produce, the shipment and distribution have to be timed before fruits and vegetables go bad, he added.

"I think a lot of (food pantries) assume that if they deny it, someone else will take it, and it's not going to waste," Chapman, who works with food pantries across central Missouri, said. "But, I think that's one of the key concerns. In the U.S., the problem isn't creating enough food -- it's getting the food to the people. It's a distribution concern, not a food-production concern. It has to do with the structure."

Fixing that structure, he said, means greater communication between growers and pantries, resulting in solid connections. Through collaboration, the two entities can bring produce from garden to table, Chapman said.

The Pantry at Table of Grace Church isn't experiencing these problems, said its founder, Stephanie Scott-Huffman. Smells of various seasoning -- garlic, cumin and lemon pepper -- permeate the church building in Jefferson City, and various types of squash were up for grabs at the entrance.

Table of Grace harvests vegetables at the NEEED garden and goes beyond what it means to be a traditional food pantry.

Volunteers hand-pick ingredients for meals -- such as white chicken chili, chicken pot pie and chicken pasta with vegetables -- that clients cook at home.

Menu and recipe information is distributed along with the ingredients on the fourth Friday of the month, but it also is available through the Pantry's website at thepantryjc.org.

Upon walking in the front door, clients select their meals from a menu.

This choice, Scott-Huffman said, empowers the nearly 300 clients helped monthly.

Their goal is to feed people food that is filling and nutritious, and fresh produce from the NEEED garden helps achieve that mission.

"We're trying to help people come away from the idea that poor people can't eat well," she said.

The Pantry's combined education on affordability, health, fullness and food preparation can help lift low-income families out of the system, Scott-Huffman said.

"(Clients) say they had no idea they could buy a dinner for $5; they just thought they could do that with Little Caesar's Pizza," she said.