Las Colinas Middle School Donates School-Grown Vegetables to St. Mary's Food Bank

April 21, 2010 - PRLog -- CAMARILLO, CALIF.--Las Colinas Middle School donated over 130 pounds of school-grown vegetables to St. Mary's Food Bank in Camarillo. The vegetables were donated as part of FOOD Share's "Pounds for Produce" contest.

   School children from Las Colinas' special needs class care for the garden. Celery, radishes, cabbage, artichokes and onions were part of the harvest. "We hope to have a least 20 pounds of vegetables a week to donate," says Dianne Polen, Las Colinas Beautification/Life Lab advisor. "We've started planting potatoes and tomatoes so they should be ready in June or the first part of July."

   Schools, community gardens and backyard gardeners are growing vegetables and donating their surplus to one of 65 Ventura County FOOD Share food banks. The pounds of vegetables are then weighed and logged to the participant's account. Top producers win free soil from Agromin on a pound-for-pound basis, equal to the total weight of produce donated to FOOD Share.

   "Our students are having such a wonderful time and feel great knowing that they are helping families within our community," says Polen.  

   The Pounds for Produce contest is a joint effort by FOOD Share and Oxnard-based Agromin,  one of California's largest green materials recyclers and a soil manufacturer of natural soil products. Gardeners sign up on the FOOD Share website as a Garden Share member to participate in the contest.

   The contest ends July 15. For more information, call Meg Horton at FOOD Share, (805) 983-7100, ext. 105 or go to the FOOD Share (http://www.foodshare.com/) or Agromin (http://www.agromin.com) websites.