LHG dedicated to food bank garden

The local Ladies Homestead Gathering, West Bonner Chapter, is seeking the community’s help with the West Bonner Food Bank Garden.

If the group can be one of the first 50 groups to raise $600 in crowdsourcing, SeedMoney.org will give the chapter an additional $400 in grant funds. Every dollar raised goes to the food bank garden.

National Ladies Homestead Gathering is a 501(c)3 that serves the local community by offering free and low-cost homesteading classes and workshops. The food bank garden is one of the chapter’s community projects.

To donate, go online to https://bit.ly/2BnsJbX.

The West Bonner Food Bank Garden is fondly referred to as The Postage Stamp Garden. This little corner of the local food bank lot was set aside to grow fresh produce to benefit those in need in the community, chapter members said. The West Bonner Food Bank serves anyone who needs help, no application or further justification required. Many of the food bank’s patrons are elderly living on fixed incomes and with health issues. The produce of the garden supplements the food they get through the food bank, adding the small town food bank is completely supported by the community it serves.

The local West Bonner Chapter of Ladies Homestead Gathering has offered to help the volunteers who run the shelter, many of whom are senior citizens, by helping to maintain the garden. The LHG women also grew produce on their individual homesteads in 2018 to donate to the food bank. A recent project by the West Bonner Chapter was to build a pallet compost bin to put spoiled food to work benefitting The Postage Stamp Garden.

After working together in 2018 it became obvious the food bank volunteers were struggling in the heat of summer to hand water the garden, LHG members said. It’s the dream of the LHG West Bonner Chapter to provide a drip irrigation system on a timer so the food bank staff have more time for their important work. This is especially critical since the food bank is not air conditioned and cannot be open when temperatures are above 100 degrees.

Donations will all go to benefit the West Bonner Food Bank Garden in Oldtown. National Ladies Homestead Gathering is a federal non-profit so all donations for the LHG Drip Irrigation Project to benefit the West Bonner Food Bank Garden are tax deductible.