Our Story
The program is simple. We bring produce to the area food pantries. Some of the produce is grown by us and some is donated by others in the community.
When most people first hear about the program, they assume that we have a background in some way with gardening or farming. However, that is the crazy twist of this story. You see, I (Michelle Shipp) am a retired kindergarten teacher and since retiring I have worked around our area at some local businesses. My husband, Chris Mullins, is a retired mason.
We both have done small backyard gardening of tomatoes and peppers, but no background in farming or gardening as a profession.
So then how did P2P start?
It started in 2017 & 2018, when we used a plot for our own kitchen garden at The Lorch Farm Community Garden (LFCG) in Cornwall Bridge, CT.
LFCG is such a blessing for residents of Cornwall. It is open for anyone in Cornwall who needs a space to garden because they don’t have space at their house. All you have to do is contact the town Ag Commission and you can use a 20x40 plot. Given that we live on .12 of an acre, we were definitely excited to have a place to garden.
In 2019, there was a large section (40x70) of the garden that wasn’t going to be used for kitchen gardens, so Calf & Clover Creamery who was growing produce for their CSA at the other end, suggested that we could go ahead and put in some extra stuff, so it didn’t all go to weeds.
It was a bit late for planting, but we knew this was a good chance to learn about direct sowing and how the plants would grow together. Chris put in the Three Sisters. The corn and green beans were plentiful; however, the late season planting meant the squash didn’t have enough time. We donated the corn and beans in late Sept and had our first glimpse how deep the need for produce really is. This is when the idea of Produce to the People was first planted. We knew the next year we were going to intentionally grow for the food pantry.
2020 found us both retired again due to the shutdown for Covid and having extra time on our hands. Chris had already planned to plant the Three Sisters again and also add kale to the plots that were in the LFCG.
That year we named those plots “The Produce to the People plots” to distinguish them from own garden plot. The concept was sprouting…literally and figuratively.
So a planting we did, but we had mixed success and lessons were learned about crop rotation, soil nutrients of various plants, and when to seed or transplant and we are still learning. Google and YouTube have been our friend in learning about gardening.
We didn’t have much success with the corn or beans, but the squash and kale were beyond amazing in production levels. The kale was harvested and bagged up in about 1/2 -3/4 lb. bags about 2 to 3 times a week and mostly distributed to Cornwall and Friendly Hands food pantries.
During this time we also began to volunteer at the Cornwall Food Pantry delivering to those who couldn’t come pick up the boxes. We also went to Torrington to pick up the FDA food boxes that were being given in relief of the pandemic. One day there was a box left over and they had us take it home. Holy moly!! Food is a loose term. Hot dogs = meat, Velveeta = cheese, veggies were moldy, white bread that my grandma called cardboard because it had the same nutritional value, and the gallon of milk was dated to last for 3 months. Talk about a shocking look at a reality!
This was that “sprout” that goes from a speck of sprout to a strong seedling seemingly overnight. Produce to the People became a true passion of ours. Everyone deserves to eat fresh produce was the thought after seeing those FDA boxes. We pledged to bring the kind of produce that you and I eat to the food pantries…fresh, raised responsibly and organically whenever possible. We are proud to say that Lorch Farm Community Garden is an all organic garden.
The backyard portion of the program began in 2020 really just with our own overflow. We grew tomatoes and peppers in our kitchen garden and anytime we had more than we could use, or give to family and friends, or I was just not up to canning that week, we would add them to our donations of kale. Each delivery was accepted with such gratitude and discussions about the need that was at each food pantry. It was overwhelming to realize how many people are food insecure in NW corner (and all over the US). Friendly Hands in Torrington told us that we can never bring too much. They could distribute 40 bags of kale in just a day to a day and half.
The 2020 season from June to Oct I tracked what we donated each week and what the market value would be if the item was purchased at a local farmers market.
We grew 3 items intentionally for the food pantry:
Kale: 544 bags with a market value of $2176
Cherry Tomatoes (Sungold and Super Sweet 100): 56 pints for $396
Squash (I know where they get their name-when we loaded them out of the field we filled the bed of our pick up truck and then added them to our Honda Pilot, that’s the squashed problem. Busted the shocks on the Pilot.)
247 squash for approximately 1200 lbs and $741.
We had a ton of squash to distribute and that continued to uncovered how great the need really is. We found need not only in Cornwall, but also in Hartford, Waterbury, Torrington, and Millerton. All were so grateful to get butternut squash as many of their clients relied on it as a staple in their diet.
Then the overflow from our kitchen garden yielded:
Roma Tomatoes 16 lbs $64
Jalapeños 10.5 lbs $45
For a grand total market value of $3422 in 2020.
Let that all sink in! This was accomplished by 2 people who know very little about gardening. Think what could be donated if the community got involved?
We were all set to continue the work in 2021, but we had to adjust and downsize growing for that year. My step dad was having an ankle replacement and we would be in Washington state for the better part of the summer as his care givers. However, with help of some neighbors the program did continue with a bumper crop of potatoes and onions. Ridgway Farms donated the potato and onion starts that year and continues to donate both to our program each year.
Once again, we were so excited at the amount to be donated, until we dropped it off and heard the same thing as we did with kale the year before….there is no such thing as too much. 50 lbs of potatoes were distributed in 2 weeks in Cornwall.
Wow! It was clear that there was no way that we would ever be able to raise enough food for the food pantries by ourselves. Discussions with friends yielded the Backyard Donation program modeling the concept of gleaning from farms that they were doing and the overflow donations I was doing.
2022 launched the new Backyard Donation portion of Produce to the People, while expanding our growing portion.
How many of you have more produce than you can use or give away from your own gardens or farms? I think it is safe to say that anyone and everyone who gardens/farms has extra produce that gets wasted. Well, maybe not those of you with chickens or pigs, they are very helpful with waste management. But most of us do have trouble keeping up with some things when they get booming. Now you have place for that produce to go! Email us and we will arrange a pick up with 24 hour notice & it can be contactless if you like.
All produce gets distributed to an area food pantry that day or the next day depending on who is open after we pick up your produce.
2022 Backyard program had a few people who donated almost every week. Some weeks there was a lot and others not so much, but every little bit adds up. The best part of the backyard program comes from the old saying…many hands make light work. We found with just about four or five steady donors we could take 40 lb. of tomatoes, 20 lbs of cucumbers, heads of cabbage, lettuce, kale and other veggies each week to help supply the food pantries and it wasn’t our labor that grew that food.
Remember, no amount is too much or too little. There is a food pantry open and distributing at least five days a week in the northwest corner, someone will always take the donation from us.
We still continued to grow produce at Lorch Farm Community Garden, but also added some plots at other locations. Unfortunately the deer were no match at the other locations, so we didn’t end up with much extra produce.
In general the program grew by word of mouth and through an article in The Cornwall Chronicle. It wasn’t too long into the season before we had garden centers donating their extra inventory to us to grow. Ridgway Farms donated several kinds of tomatoes, along with potato and onion starts, Cornwall Bridge Garden Center gave us enough tomato plants and various pepper plants to fill our Pilot, and a few other growers from the NW corner donated cucumbers, beets, Brussel sprouts, and more tomatoes. It ended up being a 20x40 plot of tomatoes that were planted so closely together it became a tomato jungle. For weeks we were taking 40-50 lbs of tomatoes to the food pantries. There was also a 20x 40 plot of various peppers…Bell of all colors, Hungarian Wax, hot peppers of several varieties.
We were so grateful to have a few volunteers that came out to help harvest tomatoes and peppers.
2023 the Backyard Donation program grew by leaps and bounds. It included farms, other community gardens, a few individuals that planted intentionally for the food pantry in their own home gardens. This is our next phase for Produce to the People. We want more people to grow intentionally at their homes for donations to food pantries…but that is for 2024, stay tuned.
The need in Cornwall and most food pantries across the country are at an all time high. It is important to remember that those who go to the food pantries are our neighbors and our friends. Making ends meet isn’t what it used to be. See how you can help on our Get Involved tab.