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Pamela Borders, above, proudly displays some of the fresh vegetables she picked up at the Coventry Food Bank.
At left, three zucchini squash get weighed. Below, Coventry Food Bank Coordinator Stefani Dugas gets ready to display some heads of lettuce. HANNAH PIECUCH
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COVENTRY — Fresh produce is the hardest thing to come by when you run a food bank, says Coventry Food Bank Coordinator Stefani Dugas.
Local businesses and residents always donate canned goods and day-old bread. But the frequency of getting fresh produce before the community garden was “never,” Dugas says.
This summer is a different story. Yesterday afternoon, URI Master Gardeners Gail Tatangelo of Coventry and Sally Allen of Richmond dropped off 22.5 pounds of produce that they picked fresh from the Community Garden located outside the town offices at 1675 Flat River Road.
Bags of zucchini, summer squash, cauliflower, broccoli, kale, swiss chard, basil, lettuce, snow peas, and cucumber piled up in the food bank refrigerator. And these are only some of the first harvests, Allen pointed out.
Still coming this summer are the peppers, eggplants and a lot more snap peas, she said. In the fall a whole series of other vegetables will be harvested.
So far 77.5 pounds of produce have been delivered from the community garden, Tatangelo said, with 50 pounds of swiss chard, kale, and radishes picked early last week.
The fresh produce has been received very well by the people serviced by the food bank, Dugas said. “People are so excited to get fresh produce. Last week the radishes were especially popular.”
While Tatangelo and Allen made their delivery, Coventry Resident Pamela Borders was picking up her food for the week. She had the first pick of the array of vegetables spread out on the counter.
“It’s exciting to be able to eat healthy,” Borders said, gladly holding her bags of produce. “A lot of times you don’t get fresh produce because the food bank doesn’t have any.”
At the garden, crops are growing well, Tatangelo said, and that has been made possible by a team of people of all ages and backgrounds volunteering their time.
Coventry was chosen this winter by the URI Master Gardener Program to be a pilot community for a Harvests from the Heart Seed Project, Tatangelo said, previously.
Seedlings were started by seniors at the senior center and by children in Coventry Public Schools, Tatangelo said. Local businesses donated material for the raised beds. Boy Scout troops built the supports for the tomatoes. Now, there is a daily watering schedule composed of residents who can take an hour out of their morning or evening to water the plants.
Using hoses and water provided by the Town of Coventry, volunteers spend about an hour or so daily going through the garden making sure everything has enough water, Tatangelo said.
Getting water from the town is a great help, she added. “We want other communities to see how the town has worked with us to make this possible.”
Coventry also has several Master Gardeners who live in town and stop by at their leisure to weed the gardens, she added.
Even though there is a good schedule of people tending the garden, everyone takes a week or two off during the summer and she is always looking for more volunteers, Tatangelo said.
If someone doesn’t feel comfortable weeding or watering, there is always a Master Gardener in town that can come by and show them how, she said. Volunteers can contact Gail Tatangelo at
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or contact Coventry Human Services at 822-9175.
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