Community Corner

Kings Market in Summit, Others Team Up To Fight Hunger

Union County Master Gardener program will get help from $25K grant from Kings markets.

Kings presented a check for $25,000 to Rutgers University Foundation on Thursday morning at the Demonstration Gardens in Watchung Reservation. The grant will be used to create an Act Against Hunger Fund.

The funds will provide volunteer and financial support to the Cooperative Extension’s Master Gardener programs in Bergen, Essex, Hunterton, Morris, Somerset and Union counties — where Kings Food Markets are located. The programs grow and harvest much-needed vegetables for donation to local food banks and soup kitchens. The $25,000 will be distributed to each program based on the projects.

Larry S. Katz, Ph.D., Senior Associate Director of NJ Agricultural Experiment Station and Director of Rutgers Cooperative Extension, thanked the Master Gardener volunteers for their hard work and dedication to The Sharing Garden, which has been growing fresh produce for low-income families in Union County since 2002.

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“It’s a great, great effort. Thank you to Cheryl [Good] and Kings for thinking about those who are disadvantaged and trying to get food,” Katz said. “Now more than ever, families are in need of some help and we have the opportunity not only to help people by growing some food that they can eat but, as we build our programs in gardening, teach people how to produce their own food, too. [That] will really go a long way toward helping families get through these difficult times.”

Cheryl Good, Consumer Affairs & Community Relations Manager for Kings Food Markets, said she is delighted Kings can be a part of this initiative.

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“Our community outreach directly focuses on hunger relief and we’re glad to be a part of this whole effort because we think it is going to help bring food to those who need it the most and they are the hungry here in New Jersey,” Good said.

A Team Effort

T.J. Karns, a Master Gardener of Union County, and Madeline Flahive-DiNardo, Agricultural and Resource Management Agent for Rutgers Cooperative Extension of Union County, said the Master Gardeners of Union County will receive $3,500 of the $25,000 grant, which will be used to renovate their kitchen and purchase garden supplies.

Karns and Flahive-DiNardo emphasized that this was very much a team effort in securing the grant money, with several individuals from the Master Gardeners and Rutgers Cooperative Extension playing a role. Two key players include JoAnne Krueger, Manager of the Demonstration Gardens in Watchung Reservation, and Althea Llewellyn, a recent graduate from Master Gardeners, who found out Kings Food Markets offers grant money.

During their Annual Spring Fair and Plant Sale, Karns said she and Kreuger were brainstorming ways to secure another grant to renovate the kitchen, which is where all the food is weighed, prepared and packaged for distribution to food banks and soup kitchens in the county.

“Our kitchen is in very bad shape. We found out that Kings Food Market has grant money, so I called, spoke to Cheryl Good, and explained to her what we did and what we think we need. She said, ‘Write a proposal and give it to me right away. Our the board meets in June,’” Karns explained. “That was in May. I wrote the proposal right away, project: new kitchen. I submitted it and then in July, Madeline called me and said, ‘Kings really liked the proposal. We’re probably going to get a grant.’”

Karns received the good news from Flahive-DiNardo just last week.

“She called and said, ‘They liked it so much that they are going to make $25,000 available to Master Garden programs across New Jersey as long as they help feed the hungry,’” Karns said.

Karns said many of the Master Gardeners spent a lot of time on Wednesday, sprucing up the Demonstration Gardens for the check presentation.

The Sharing Garden

Five Kings Food Market volunteers from the Berkeley Heights, Garwood and Summit stores harvested fresh vegetables from The Sharing Garden after the check presentation. The vegetables gathered, including string beans, zucchini, peppers and cucumbers, were placed into bags, weighed and sent to St. Joseph’s in Elizabeth.

The Kings Food Market volunteers included:

Jeanelle Hylton and Caroline Teele,

Keith Morrison, Garwood Store

Kristen Connerat and Lakashi Branch, Berkeley Heights Store

Norma Cohen, Co-Chair of The Sharing Garden, said there are about two dozen volunteers from the Master Gardeners who maintain The Sharing Garden, most of whom are retired. Six to seven volunteers work at a time, meeting every Tuesday and Thursday from 10 a.m. to 12 p.m. to maintain the garden.

Larry Verdicchio, Chair of The Sharing Garden, said the seeds for The Sharing Garden are planted in the garden’s green house first. Once the seeds germinate, the plants are transplanted into The Sharing Garden and are then maintained by volunteers.

The Master Gardeners are donating vegetables from The Sharing Garden to 30 charitable agencies in Union County this year, he said.

The Master Gardeners of Union County

Flahive-DiNardo said the Union County Master Gardeners program started in 1987, with their 25th anniversary coming up next year. However, the first county to start such a program in New Jersey was Bergen in 1985. Master Gardener programs are now functioning in 19 counties across the state.

To become a Master Gardener, you must take a course that runs the academic year, fall through spring, she said.

“Each week, speakers from Rutgers Cooperative Extension come and talk about their area of expertise. We cover vegetable gardening, lawn care, plant pathology, entomology,” Flahive-DiNardo said.

Flahive-DiNardo said each Master Gardener program must be affiliated with a land grant university, which is while all programs in New Jersey are affiliated with Rutgers University.

Karns said the Master Gardeners program started in Seattle in the 1970s and has grown ever since.

For more information about the Master Gardeners of Union County, please visit mastergardeners-uc.org, email mastergardeners@ucnj.org or call (908) 654-9854.

For more information about the Rutgers Cooperative Extension in your county, please visit www.njaes.rutgers.edu/cpunty or www.njaes.rutgers.edu/mastergardeners


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