Share your love of fresh, healthy
produce with those
who don’t get enough nutritious food. Capital District Community Gardens (CDCG)
Squash Hunger Program unites those who have surplus fresh produce to give with
those in need.
Since it's creation in 2004, the Squash Hunger program has collected more than
70,000
pounds of fruits and vegetables donated by members of the community
which is brought to shelters, pantries, and soup kitchens by volunteers.
Extra produce can be
donated at one of the eleven Squash Hunger
collection sites in
Albany, Schenectady and Rensselaer counties.
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Here’s How to Help *Plant a row
in your garden just for the hungry
* Harvest and share the extra produce
from your own garden
*Donate produce from your farm, your
Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) share or a farmer’s market
*When picking strawberries or apples
pick some for the hungry
*When shopping for your family, buy
extra produce to share. *Bring the produce to one of eleven collection sites
throughout the capital district.
Locations that
have received
produce from the Squash Hunger Program
Unity House, Troy NY
Capital City Rescue Mission, Albany
NY
Salvation Army,
Troy NY
Doors of Hope, West Sand Lake NY
Trinity Place, Albany NY
Concerns U, Rensselaer NY
St. James, Albany NY
Residential Center, Altamont House,
Altamont NY
Booth Home, Schenectady NY
Schenectady Inner City Ministry,
Schenectady NY
YMCA food pantry, Schenectady NY
St. Catherine's Home, Albany NY
Equinox Shelters, Albany NY
Joseph's
House, Troy NY
*
Facts about Hunger in New York State
*
·Fifty percent of households
receiving emergency food assistance include at least one employed adult
·America’s Second Harvest
estimates that more than 900,000 New Yorkers rely on Emergency Food Programs (EFPs),
or soup kitchens and food pantries, each week.
·According to the New York State
Department of Health, the total number of meals provided by soup kitchens
increased by 3.9 million pounds (61%) from 1987 to 1996.
·An estimated 340,080 children in
NYS are hungry, according to the Nutrition Consortium of New York State.
·During the summer months, the
problem is more acute when children, who are most affected by hunger, don’t
have access to school-based meals
·Nearly 80,000 of those using the
Food Pantries of the Capital Region were infants or children, 86,000 were adults
and 13,500 were seniors.
*
