OPINION

Neal Robbins, publisher | Frank Hill, senior opinion editor

Sneak some zucchini onto your neighbor’s porch

Maybe a piece of zucchini is not as popular as a banana.

But zucchini is actually higher in potassium!

I REMEMBER Garrison Keillor claiming that August was the only time of the year when residents of Lake Wobegon locked their car doors out of fear that their neighbors would leave a bag of zucchini on their seats. In a small, rural town where many people had a garden, folks were looking to offload this vegetable.

While Keillor exaggerates many details of rural life in his fictional town, an abundance of zucchini is a real-life phenomenon — even for a lazy gardener like me. Neglect your plants, and weeds will take over. But the zucchini powers through! Keillor referred to “alien zucchini” because they invade seemingly overnight. One day you have an innocent vine; the next day massive green Zeppelins have landed, but they will not take off again unless you sneak them into someone’s unlocked car or back porch.

Aug. 8 is the national day to “sneak” zucchini onto a porch because it’s assumed both you and your neighbor have more than enough food to eat. Sadly, this is not true for many in Chatham County. People experiencing food insecurity often lack access to fresh produce.

I’m grateful for the food assistance program known as PORCH in my neighborhood. We leave grocery bags of donations on our porches and volunteers deliver the collection to the CORA Food Pantry. In the past year, PORCH has also provided donations of vegetables and fruits to children of the Boys and Girls Club of Pittsboro. Maybe a piece of zucchini is not as popular as a banana. But zucchini is actually higher in potassium!

In addition to its nutritional richness, fresh zucchini can actually be a little sweet. Of course, zucchini tastes sweeter when combined with bananas and chocolate chips in my wife’s muffins. We left some on the porch of a neighbor whose young son is finicky about his vegetables.

National Sneak Some Zucchini onto Your Neighbor’s Porch was the idea of Thomas Roy, the same gentleman who created No Socks Day (May 8). Maybe Roy has a little too much time on his hands.

But even if you are busy, I hope you will contribute to CORA or another local food pantry, either directly or through a collection like PORCH. Let’s be good neighbors and freely share from our abundance — we don’t even have to be sneaky about it.

EDITORIAL

| BOB WACHS