“We are out of food.”

It was late-January of 2023, and Norm, a volunteer at The Salvation Army’s Care and Share Centre in Chilliwack, B.C., had just made this simple but startling declaration at my office door. “What are you going to do about it?”

I had no idea what to say. It had become regrettably normal for us to run out of food in The Pantry by late afternoon every day, but it was only 10:50 a.m., and it hadn’t even been open for an hour.

The Salvation Army runs Chilliwack’s only registered food bank, with two major programs: the traditional food hamper program and The Pantry, which is like an old-school corner grocery store, except everything is free. It relies on generous donations of excess produce, dairy, deli, baked goods and more from local grocery stores—about 2,700-3,600 kilograms each day.

Since 2020, The Pantry has grown from 250 visitors a week to more than 1,000. Most visitors are seniors, low-income or single-parent families, or recent immigrants to Canada. In an era of rising costs, access to free, fresh, healthy produce has made The Pantry an essential lifeline for many.

But as The Pantry grew, we realized there was a problem: demand was rapidly outstripping the supply, meaning limits on certain items or early closure.

Thankfully, Norm had a suggestion: challenge the idea that food bank donations had to be non-perishable. Instead, he wanted to help me create a program that encouraged people to donate fresh fruits and vegetables, to provide an extra boost of healthy produce for The Pantry. He wanted to call the program “Plant a Row for Us.”

My first call was to local gardening legend Brian Minter, a longtime supporter of the Army. He told me that a previous attempt at something like this hadn’t got off the ground, but he was willing to try again—and knew just the people to call. I didn’t fully understand why he mentioned two high school teachers, but I was happy he was on board. 

Planting a Seed

“It’s Joe—we’re here. Where do we go?”

I didn’t recognize the number or the voice. It was July, and I couldn’t believe how quickly word of “Plant a Row for Us” had spread. It seemed like everywhere I went people asked me if they could donate zucchini from their backyard to the food bank. And at The Pantry, volunteers and clients alike noticed a sudden influx of fruits and veggies on the shelf each day.

I directed this mystery caller to our warehouse and headed across the parking lot to meet him. What I found was a white pickup truck, its bed overflowing with freshly harvested vegetables: corn, cauliflower, broccoli, Swiss chard, onions, squash and more. More than 180 kilograms!

Joe Massie introduced himself: a high school physics teacher by trade, a farmer at heart, he and his teaching partner, Tania Toth, ran an agriculture program at Sardis Secondary School, one of the large high schools in town. They had a two-hectare parcel of farmland near the school that they used to teach students about the food cycle.

I had to see for myself, so the next week, I went on a field trip to the farm. I was greeted by a group of 25 or so teenagers. Although they were technically “at school” over their summer break, doing manual labour in the late July heat, dripping with sweat, hands and knees caked in dirt, they were smiling proudly. They had just finished harvesting another 227 kilograms of beautiful vegetables from the farm. Everything was washed and organized into bins, ready to be donated to the food bank.

Joe and Tania showed me around the farm and, to my amazement, pointed out multiple large sections dedicated specifically to The Pantry. No wonder Brian Minter had wanted to talk to these two: this was a game-changer. 

For the rest of the summer, Joe’s white pickup truck backed up to the warehouse door every week, with another 136-272 kilograms of produce for The Pantry.

In October, they organized a massive harvest event. When I arrived that Thursday morning, I immediately regretted wearing sneakers. In an unrelenting downpour, a team of around 70 students and community volunteers picked more than 2,722 kilograms of potatoes, carrots, onions, squash and more. The harvest stocked The Pantry for a week, and we were also able to give some away to other agencies.

I drove home barefoot that day— the sneakers didn’t make it. 

A Big Heart and a Green Thumb

“This is what allows me to survive. I am a survivor.” Giuseppe is a familiar face at The Pantry. Born to an affluent family, he owned his own plumbing and heating company. Then, in a moment, he lost everything: his wife to tragedy, his career and finances to legal malpractice.

Giuseppe ended up at the corner of Main and Hastings, the centre of Vancouver’s infamous Downtown Eastside. After a couple of years at The Salvation Army’s Grace Mansion, he moved back to Chilliwack, only to realize that his pension was not enough to cover rent. Our outreach team found him an apartment at a low-income senior’s complex and encouraged him to visit The Pantry for fresh groceries a few times a week and get a food hamper once a month. He is not shy to tell you that The Salvation Army saved his life.

Guiseppe represents the “for us” in “Plant a Row for Us”: the ones who are doing their best with what they have, and who are just trying to feed those they love. 

Through every person who has supported the “Plant a Row for Us” program, God has planted and watered a beautiful tree. It is rooted in the generosity of seemingly average people with a big heart for their city—and a green thumb.

To date, we have brought in more than 77,111 kilograms of produce for The Pantry. There are still days when we run out of food, but thankfully, those days are becoming fewer. 

Josh Draheim is the community partnerships co-ordinator at The Salvation Army Care and Share Centre in Chilliwack, B.C.