Celebrating our First Harvest

Volunteers Diane Kerns and Becky Potter harvesting kale.

Last week was an important week in the Community Kitchen Garden: we made our first harvest of the season! On Monday morning I had the pleasure of working with Lewis Ginter volunteer Diane Kerns and HandsOn Greater Richmond volunteer Becky Potter, and we harvested 81 pounds of lettuce and kale.

That’s nowhere near the largest delivery we have ever made, but 81 pounds of fresh crisp greens is a pretty impressive sight. I stopped by Feedmore’s Community Kitchen right before lunch that morning to deliver the fresh produce and say hello to all of the folks working hard to prepare tasty meals for Central Virginia’s neediest citizens through Meals on Wheels and Kids Cafe.

Fresh greens galore: kale and lettuce.

Later in the week I led a lively bunch of volunteers from Kings Dominion. The group helped weed the garden, prepare more planting beds, and plant summer crops like squash and okra. We can’t wait for Kings Dominion to send out two more groups of volunteers later this summer.

Kings Dominion volunteers, many of whom traveled from the Philippines to work in the United States for the summer.