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Master Gardeners Augment Food Banks

Waldo Jaquith
/
Flickr
While canned goods are crucial for food banks, so is fresh produce. That's where Iowa's Master Gardeners come in.

Iowa’s Master Gardeners will be stocking community food banks this summer.

Iowa State University Master Gardner coordinator Denny Schrock says it’s expanding existing programs already producing nearly 15-tons of fresh produce.augmenting healthy diets for more than a third of a million Iowans said to be food insecure. And Shrock says the desired foods are surprising.

"They want more zucchini. So, we’ve green beans, tomatoes, cucumbers,  carrots, potatoes, melons, bell peppers, and sweet potatoes are going to be part of the home demonstration gardens.”   

Charity Nebbe spoke with Schrock and Iowa State University Extension Horticulturist Richard Jauron on this edition of Talk of Iowa.

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Charity Nebbe is the host of IPR's Talk of Iowa