Food Bank helps local programs with a "garden in a bucket"

Yesterday, I posted about the Food Bank of Central New York's work to encourage gardening at local food pantries and community kitchens.  I was also intrigued to learn about this program for those programs that might not have room for a garden...

Garden in a Bucket is open to all Food Bank Partner Agency food pantries and soup kitchens interested in container gardening through our regular menu ordering system.

Here’s how it works:

• Each agency that is interested in receiving the Garden in a Bucket program will order a Garden in a Bucket Kit through the regular ordering system at any time during the year!
• Each Garden in a Bucket kit will contain 20 drilled buckets, 20 seed packets or seedlings, and instruction handouts.
• The gardening kits will be delivered to agencies with regular deliveries.
• The agency will be responsible for finding a soil donation or purchasing 6-8 bags of topsoil. If a topsoil purchase is necessary, the cost will be reimbursed at a maximum of $20.00 by the Food Bank once per year. 
• The bucket gardens will be planted at the local agency. The agency can plant the buckets on their own, recruit a local volunteer group or request assistance with finding a volunteer group from the Food Bank.
• Each food pantry and soup kitchen will be eligible for two kits per order.
• Garden in a Bucket can be done across the growing season and a variety of fruits and vegetables can be grown in containers.

See the planting suggestions below for suggestions of what to plant May through August.

• After last frost in May: bean seeds, beet seeds, broccoli seedlings, carrot seeds, lettuce seedlings, kale seeds, radish seeds, spinach seeds
• June: eggplant seedlings, herb seedlings, tomato seedlings, pepper seedlings, onion seedlings
• End of July: kale seeds, lettuce seeds, radish seeds, spinach seeds
• Middle of August: beet seeds, broccoli seedlings, carrot seeds, lettuce seedlings, turnip seeds