1. It’s economical. Buy one package of 4 organic tomatoes for $4.99, or one tomato plant for $2.50 - $5.00 and get 50 tomatoes. Your savings are even greater if you grow veggies from seeds.
2. You control what goes in. You decide if your food will be organic, GMO free, or grown from heirloom varieties. You food can be as "clean" as you want it to be.
3. Freshness and taste. Pick a carrot, clean it, peel it, and eat it. Five minutes from garden to belly. Can’t get fresher than that. And we all know the difference between a homegrown tomato and store-bought, right? It’s like tasting sunshine.
4. Convenience. Your food is just steps from your kitchen. What’s ripe is what’s for dinner!
5. Improves health. Not only do you benefit from eating healthy, fresh, organic vegetables, but gardening is also great exercise and relieves stress.
6. Connect with family and community. Become the most popular person on the block when you share your veggies with your neighbors! Bring extras to your food pantry to help the hungry in your community.
7. Lessen your environmental impact. “Food miles” refers to the distance from farm to your table, which in the US, is estimated at 1500-2500 miles and a whole lot of carbon emissions. Imagine the environmental impact we’d make if we all grew a portion of our own food! We’d save so much of the energy required to harvest, wash, process, package, and transport the veggies that we could so easily grow at home.
Have I convinced you to start a vegetable garden yet? Well, it’s not enough to grow our own food – we need to help others grow theirs too. The GardenWorks Project is helping to relieve hunger by building vegetable gardens at the homes of families in need of food pantry assistance. Here’s why:
8. Relieve hunger in your community. In DuPage County alone, nearly 100,000 people are food insecure (not sure if they will eat 3 meals in a day) and 16.4% are children.
9. Food pantries can’t keep up. Area food pantries are experiencing an increase in people seeking help, and a decrease in donations. Some pantries do not have refrigeration, so they must rely on shelf-stable foods, many of which are highly processed and low in nutrients. And some may not ever see organic foods on their shelves.
10. It’s the right thing to do. By helping food insecure families grow their own food, we promote self-sufficiency, pride, good stewardship of the earth, and a healthy lifestyle. And that’s something we all deserve, not just those with the financial means to afford it.