“Plant A Row For Us” Brings the Community Together to Fight Food Insecurity

To battle food insecurity, The Salvation Army in Chilliwack, B.C., has come up with the “Plant A Row For Us” program, a creative solution that involves the community working together to ensure everyone is fed.

The Salvation Army has an initiative called “The Pantry”. It is a free grocery store to which individuals and families in need can come to collect food, dairy, and produce donated by local grocery stores. Over 3,000 households are currently being fed through The Pantry program.

Due to the rise in food prices, the demand at The Pantry has significantly increased, causing them to run out of food on some days To tackle this issue, Salvation Army volunteer Norm Deveau, came up with an idea to help meet the current food demand.

“I kept thinking about people that are living paycheque to paycheque.”

“Over the last year, the inflation factor hit the food industry in a big way, and I kept thinking about people that are living paycheque to paycheque. That’s when I came up Plant A Row For Us,” Norm said.

The Plant A Row For Us program encourages members of the community to plant fresh produce in their own gardens, and then donate their crops to The Pantry. The donations are then stored to ensure food availability, even during times of high demand.

To kick off the program, The Salvation Army held an inaugural event to let the community know about the initiative. Locally recognized guest speakers were in attendance, such as master gardener Brian Minter, who gave the audience gardening tips as well as starter plants and supplies. The event was a success with approximately 80 people in attendance.

“We asked the audience to reach out to one friend and ask them to support the program. Now we are getting phone calls and emails from people asking about it,” Norm said.

Norm was not alone in developing this program. He worked together with The Salvation Army’s  Community Partnerships Coordinator, Josh Draheim, and Business Manager Warren Schatz. Brian Minter also contributed to the development of the program’s agenda.

“It’s about the team, not just me,” Norm said. “They are all putting their hands in the pot making sure this works,” Norm said.

According to Josh Draheim, the goal of the program is to bring in 100,000 pounds of food to The Pantry within the next year. Based on the community’s interest, Josh is optimistic about meeting this goal.

“The community is really excited about this because we love to garden in Chilliwack, and so the opportunity to have a garden and help others is a really cool thing. It is a game changer for food security in Chilliwack,” Josh said.

Josh, community partnerships coordinator, stands in front of “The Pantry.”

For people that don’t have a garden, there are other options in which they can help.

“The best way for someone that can’t plant a garden to help, is through a financial donation. Financial donations give us the flexibility to purchase what we need, when we need it, and at a cost that’s much better than anyone trying to go buy it at a store,” Josh added.

The Plant A Row for Us team hopes that the program will continue to grow, and eventually bring in larger amounts of produce consistently.

By Juan Romero