Rappahannock Plant A Row

Child poses with her new Easter bunny at the Pantry.

It’s turning out to be a very green spring for the Food Pantry. We’re not talking about our gorgeous green fields and hills – we’re talking cash! Three events last weekend will help keep Pantry shelves stocked. Flavor magazine’s Melissa Harris and John and Beverly Sullivan threw a wonderfully successful benefit for the Food Pantry at the Sullivans’ lovely home, The Meadows, in Washington. The Pantry will also receive sales proceeds from Betsey Apple’s book signing (Far Flung and Well Fed: The Food Writing of R.W. Apple) at Ballard’s Gallery. And a nice contribution is forthcoming from admissions to the Rappahannock Association for the Arts and Community’s (RAAC) one-act plays and comedy performances. Thanks so much for supporting the Pantry – we’ll need it with the cuts in government funding.

We’re grateful to the Flint Hill Baptist Church for its $625 donation – and for its plan to make quarterly contributions to the Pantry. Flint Hill Baptist may not be among the largest Rappahannock churches – but its generosity makes it a stand-out.

Notable contributions of the last few weeks include another large donation from Catholic Charities of the Arlington diocese – 1300 lbs of canned and boxed food. (An equivalent amount went to the Warrenton Food Bank.) And we were delighted to receive 400 lbs of ground beef from Chancellor’s Rock Farm in Flint Hill.

But the big story is our Rappahannock chickens – have they been busy! In March The Pantry received 240 dozen eggs. (Sunnyside Farms donated more than half of that total.) So far this month, 160 dozen eggs have been donated. Eggsalent work, ladies!

Mimi could use a little more help at the Pantry. To volunteer, call her at 675-1177 or email PlantaRowRapp@aol.com. The Pantry is open Tuesdays and Thursdays from 9 to 4, and Saturdays from 9 to 2. Morning volunteers receive food donations and issue receipts, stack shelves, and unload food from the FCAC van. Afternoon volunteers help Pantry recipients shop and load their cars.

We’re looking for a registered dietician to help interested Pantry recipients work on healthier eating. We’d like to offer this help for a few hours, once a month, to start with. If you know a registered dietician who’d be willing to donate his or her time, please call Mimi at 675-1177 or email PlantaRowRapp@aol.com.

Coming events: Stop by the Food Pantry/ Plant a Row table at the Waterpenny Plant Sale this Saturday, May 1, from 9:00 to 3:00. If you can staff the table for an hour or two, please email PlantaRowRapp@aol.com. And this Sunday, May 2, at 3:00, watch Farm-to-Table students install a 2’x8’ demonstration garden at the Pantry. You can learn how to build a similar, manageable garden at your home, which, though small, can yield hundreds of pounds of vegetables – some of which you’ll donate to the Pantry, of course. The Pantry is located at 603 Mt. Salem Ave. in Washington. It’s the middle turnoff to Washington, second driveway on the right. See you there!

Wanted: Hoop House helpers – hail Hal Hunter at hal@rappahannock.com.

Kathy Eggers