AmpleHarvest.org pantries cover 'almost' entire US. Here's how gardeners can help.

WEST MILFORD — After amassing more than 8,200 food pantries in his AmpleHarvest.org directory, Gary Oppenheimer's donation network now covers almost the entire United States.

Oppenheimer is consumed by the "almost."

"There are wide open spaces, where I don't yet have a presence," he said. "It turns out one shoe doesn't fit all."

Sown in West Milford, AmpleHarvest.org is a registry for food pantries accepting donations of fresh produce. Pantries sign up, list the items they seek and note days and times when they accept donations. The goal, Oppenheimer said, is to connect backyard gardeners with extra produce to reduce the potential for waste while combating hunger and malnutrition.

Currently, roughly 20% of U.S. food pantries have signed up. Oppenheimer wants more, specifically in Native American communities, where an estimated one in four people were facing food insecurity before the pandemic started, said Helen Oliff of the Texas-based nonprofit Partnership with Native Americans.

"We also know that at the Native American food pantries, demand has increased since the pandemic," Oliff said. "We know people did lose jobs." 

Reliance on supermarkets a problem

Poverty rates for American Indians and Native Alaskans living in non-metro areas are roughly 30%, according to statistics kept by the U.S. Department of Agriculture's Economic Research Service. In rural South Dakotan counties, Native Americans make up the majority of the poverty population. That state and other areas of the Midwest home to large Native American populations are also known for a prevalence of counties with extreme child poverty rivaled only by the South.

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While federal food programs such as SNAP can help those populations, a reliance on supermarkets can pose problems. A 2014 survey conducted by the USDA found that less than 26% of people on tribal reservations lived a mile or less from a supermarket compared with nearly 59% of the total population. The 27,000-square-mile Navajo Nation in the Southwest has fewer than 15 supermarkets.

Restricted access to fresh produce due to distance and cost is a significant hindrance in tribal communities, Oliff said. Backyard gardeners in border towns could help close that gap via pantries, she said.

"Certainly, if there's a way to get more produce into these communities, that's a good thing," Oliff said.

To add sources of fresh produce, the AmpleHarvest.org team has been working with tribal leaders from Florida to Alaska to grow its food bank network. A key step, Oppenheimer said, will be to break the reliance of his website and app on Google Maps.

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Alternatively, an offshoot of AmpleHarvest.org set to launch in June will use What3words mapping software. The software assigns a unique three-word address to a global grid of 3-meter squares. It can be less prone to error than GPS coordinates and ideal for finding locations with no street address, Oppenheimer said. It works well in the woods of North Jersey. It could also help Native American communities in the Great Plains, he said.

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"They're going to work with us to enable a food pantry in the middle of North Dakota to still be able to receive our garden produce," he said.

Hopeful for 2022

Oppenheimer is hopeful 2022 will bring more garden produce to nationwide food pantries than ever before. The pandemic increased America's backyard gardening community by about 20 million people, according to a survey by Bonnie Plants, the nation's largest supplier of vegetable and herb seedlings. That means there could be more than 60 million home-scale gardeners in America this summer.

To make gains in that space, AmpleHarvest.org recently built on its partnership with Bonnie Plants. It added the company's CEO Mike Sutterer to its board of directors in July 2020. This year, the Bonnie Plants racks at the Home Depot are due to feature #DonateYourHarvest branding and QR codes created to raise awareness of AmpleHarvest.org.

Oppenheimer said linking with a company that supplies seedlings was a perfect fit. Perhaps the registry's most pressing need is reaching an expanding number of backyard growers to make them aware of local food pantries that will accept their produce.

Still, at some pantries in tribal communities, logistical issues such as cold storage and hours of operation can create problems, said Richard Elm-Hill from First Nations Development Institute. Elm-Hill, a member of the Oneida Nation of Wisconsin, said a lack of traditional foods offered at pantries can also be a hindrance to gaining a foothold in Native American communities. Networking among pantries and coordination with potential donors, therefore, is vital to effective donation and distribution, he added.

David Zimmer is a local reporter for NorthJersey.com. For unlimited access to the most important news from your local community, please subscribe or activate your digital account today.

Email: zimmer@northjersey.com

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