GCREC STUDENT/POST-DOC GROUP SUPPORTS CHARITIES WITH EXCESS PRODUCE DONATIONS

By Jim Frankowiak

As part of its ongoing commitment to offer research solutions to growers of numerous commodities in Florida, the University of Florida Institute of Food and Agricultural Services (UF/ IFAS) Gulf Coast Research and Education Center at Balm continually produces produce from research trials at its 475-acre facility in southern Hillsborough County. Substantial amounts of this produce were being composted until a recent initiative was implemented by the Center’s Gulf Coast Post-doc and Student Association (GCPSA).

The origin of that program can surprisingly be traced to GCREC PhD Graduate Assistant Lillian Pride, the impetus behind the GCSPA food donation program, when she was a nursing school student at Truman State University in Kirksville, Missouri. “My nursing school instructor told the class that a few students regularly went hungry to pay for school, and she encouraged them to reach out to the local food pantry,” said Pride. “We also received extra credit for volunteering at a food pantry for one of our classes, and a friend introduced me to a local farmers’ market. Also, nutrition classes at Truman greatly improved my life as cutting sugar out of my diet and incorporating a lot of vegetables helped a lot.”

“I did not finish my nursing degree, and after a break went back to school for engineering at St. Louis Community College (STLLC), where I ended up in the Phi Theta Kappa honors society. One of our officers was trying to start the Brown Bag Café food pantry and a campus garden. Apparently, the Pell Grant disbursement period had shifted a month later and some students were not eating in order to pay for their education, which was a problem which had been happening for a long time at the community college, but was exacerbated by the change in the Pell Grant disbursement period.

“For some reason the idea of a campus garden where students could literally walk right up and pick their own lettuce riveted me, and I kept asking the officer in charge of the food pantry and garden project, ‘Have you started the garden?’ She said no, but did manage to start the food pantry. I was asked to start the garden, but did not have the time so another officer of the society agreed to take up the garden the following semester.

“That did not take place since the officer who agreed to take up the garden had to assume society presidency and the garden project had no leader. So I did the only logical thing and stepped up, ultimately changing my major again in my last semester. In combination with my desire to start the garden, what really made me shift my major was the influence of Mark Manteuffel from the STLLC Florissant Valley campus Home Plate Community Garden and the book, 40 Chances: Finding Hope in a Hungry World by Howard Buffett, which I only came across because Mark brought me to a talk Buffett was doing at the St. Louis Library. They convinced me that it was possible to make a living growing produce in the world, and downright worthwhile to do so. I had already applied and had been accepted to multiple engineering schools, but I applied to horticulture schools where Iowa State University became the obvious choice.

“What inspired me to go to horticulture school was the thought that I could teach people how to grow their own food, and, also to address food insecurity and nutritional issues in the United States. That has become a passion for me and is what drives me.”

While at Iowa State Pride learned about the MEANS (Matching Excess and Needs for Stability) Database, and “I also became familiar with the unique challenges research stations, such as the GCREC, face for donating produce,” she said. “The main challenge isn’t willingness to donate, but a lack of time and money, both of which are addressed by the MEANS Database, an organization that coordinates the posting, transport and reception of food donations to local nonprofits. All that is needed at each donating location is someone willing to spend a few minutes a day to be the interface between the MEANS Database and the location along with the location’s approval.”

Pride noted that research stations, such as the GCREC, cannot sell their produce in many cases because it would put them in competition with local growers, and the station staff members typically have tight schedules and limited budgets that prohibit donations.

“When I became an employee at the GCREC in 2019, I could see they had a lot of extra produce they were composting which everyone would have preferred to donate,” said Pride. “I didn’t have time back then, but when I became a student at the GCREC and an officer of the GCPSA, I talked with the officer team, which shared the vision with our Center director Dr. Jack Rechcigl. He said he was 100% behind it, so we reached out to the recently-launched MEANS branch in our state. Since November of 2022, we have donated over 2700 pounds of produce from three of our research labs! Our most recent donation was 511-pounds of strawberries split between the Food Bank of Manatee and the Society of St. Andrews.”

“The way it works is that each research lab at our location has a food donation liaison. If the donation is small, the liaison can post their donation on the MEANS and deal with it independently. A nonprofit will receive notification after they make a posting and directly contact the liaison to pick up the produce. If the donation is large, the liaison can contact me and I will coordinate the donation with the MEANS staff directly. When the research lab cannot harvest the produce they wish to donate due to labor limitation, I work with the Society of St. Andrews, who will glean the field and transport the produce to the nonprofit.”

“I am the contact for the GCPSA who organizes the effort at the GCREC with one liaison from each lab (Bill Wang from the Agehara lab, Mark Porter from the Seonghee lab, Tiffany Long from the Smith lab, Dolly Cummings from the Hutton lab, Emily Witt from the Boyd lab, Marrissa Cassaway from the Vallad lab, Angel Arredonda from the Whitaker lab, Steven Kinsey from the Choi lab, Lorna Carter from the Peres lab, and Justin Carter from the Desaeger lab). So far I have received donations from the Agehara, Hutton, and Desaeger labs. I am regularly in contact with Emily Grant from the MEANS Database and Forrest White from the Society of St. Andrews. I would also be excited to work with any of the local growers, especially those in collaboration with the GCREC, who would like to volunteer a liaison.”

Produce donations coordinated by the GCPSA, thus far, have gone to the MEANS Database, St. Petersburg Free Clinic Food Bank, The Food Bank of Manatee and The Society of St. Andrews.