2024 Community Challenge Grantee: HarvestShare

The onset of the coronavirus pandemic in 2020 revealed a pressing community health issue for Catherine "Cat" Kahn, a Montgomery County gardening enthusiast. She was in the early stages of a project to teach food pantry clients how to grow their own produce when the pandemic struck, causing widespread job losses and longer lines at food banks.

Kahn learned that there were pockets of food insecurity in well-to-do Bethesda. Like many, Kahn wondered how she could help Montgomery County residents.

Kahn established the grassroots initiative HarvestShare in 2020 to expand volunteerism by encouraging residential and community food gardeners to grow a little extra in their gardens and donate the surplus to those in need. HarvestShare was granted status as a 501(c)(3) in early 2022.

In addition to supplying homegrown produce to local food pantries, HarvestShare teaches Montgomery County's diverse population how to grow their own food. "In one immigrant community, we taught families to grow green beans in repurposed containers. We provided the growing materials and shared videos in English and Spanish on how to grow your produce," Kahn said.

In 2020, HarvestShare teamed up with Michelle Nelson, the Montgomery Parks Community Garden Program manager, to provide a distribution channel for unharvested produce donations. Their partnership expanded and now includes six "parks gardens" and one "grow-to-donate" garden. Since 2020, HarvestShare has donated more than 32 tons of fresh produce from community and residential gardens, farmers' markets, and grow-to-donate gardens.

The "Giving Garden," established in 2023, serves Nourishing Bethesda's food pantry and provides produce to more than 3,200 residents under 50 and 1,000 seniors monthly. Located on several acres of a Potomac benefactor's property, the Giving Garden's summer harvest can include multiple pepper and tomato varieties, beans, squash, cucumbers, eggplants, okra, beans, and nutritious greens.

The majority of HarvestShare's volunteers are seniors. The AARP Community Challenge Grant will help cover the cost of gardening tools tailored to people of varied physical abilities. For example, HarvestShare will add two elevated gardening beds, a bean pole, and kneeling benches that flip to provide seating, eliminating the need to bend over while planting seeds or pulling up potatoes.

"Our goal is to have food redistributed within 24 hours of harvesting, which makes us unique among organizations that donate food," said Kahn. "A garden can harvest at noon and get the produce out by 2 p.m. The quick turnaround ensures that the food is super fresh."

Kahn emphasized that it's the community's support that has made HarvestShare sustainable. The AARP Community Challenge Grant, she added, will further strengthen this community-driven initiative and reduce food insecurity in specific Montgomery County communities.

The senior volunteers, the "gardeners for good," said Kahn, are the key to HarvestShare's success and growth. "Many wonderful people do a big part of the work, and they make everything easier."

To learn more about HarvestShare and to volunteer with them, visit https://harvestsharemd.org/.