ExtraFood thanks Edible Marin and Wine Country Magazine and Kier Holmes for their article on our backyard produce program, Share the Bounty.
By Kier Holmes
When your vegetable garden or fruit trees burst with more than you can eat, your prolific produce doesn’t have to go to waste. Share the Bounty, a program of the local nonprofit ExtraFood, makes it simple to share your garden’s gifts.
Started in 2016 by three Marin County siblings (Jack, Scott and Kate Van Hooser) with their mother Tracey Van Hooser, Share the Bounty will pick up your freshly harvested goods if you live in Marin, Sonoma Valley or San Francisco, and then deliver your excess to ExtraFood recipient partners that serve our communities’ most vulnerable children, families and seniors facing hunger.
For Marin residents, Share the Bounty’s gleaning team can even make house visits and harvest your produce for you. Tracey, who serves as the organization’s program manager, says, “We now have a robust team of 21 Glean Leads (adults who are trained on our systems and processes and lead harvests) plus a volunteer database of over 100 adults and 50 youths. We have established partnerships with volunteer groups associated with National Charity League, Boys Team Charity, Lion’s Heart Service, Westminster Presbyterian Church and Tam High School. All these partnerships are focused on teens (kids aged 12+ can volunteer with us) so we have many kids involved with gleaning.”
To date, Share the Bounty has harvested nearly 43,000 pounds of fruit, herbs and vegetables. Donating your surplus produce helps those in need get access to fresh, healthy food—plus, you’re preventing food being wasted. Did you know that wasted food is a major contributor to a warming climate because decaying food in landfills releases harmful methane (a gas 86% more detrimental that carbon dioxide)? Please consider donating your garden’s produce or volunteering to harvest or deliver. Visit ExtraFood.org to learn more.