The Bluegrass and Beyond

As many of us prepare a big Thanksgiving dinner, it’s worth thinking about neighbors who won’t be so lucky.

There are more of them than usual.

In fact, food bank directors across Kentucky say there are more of them than they’ve ever seen before.

A report last week from the U.S. Department of Agriculture found that the number of American households struggling to feed themselves rose by 4 million in 2008, to a total of 17 million.

The report estimated that one in seven U.S. households — 49 million Americans — were “food insecure” (meaning without enough food) at times last year. It was the highest rate since the study began in 1995, and it included 506,000 families with children.

The numbers were based on a scientific survey of 44,000 households, including 1,881 in Kentucky.

When viewed state by state, food insecurity among Kentucky households was a little above the average, at 12.6 percent, with 4.4 percent of households considered “very insecure.” Kentucky’s numbers have been steady in recent years, although they’re much higher than they were in the late 1990s.

“We’re seeing a lot of folks who have never accessed food assistance before,” said Marian Guinn, chief executive of God’s Pantry, which operates a food bank in Lexington and supplies food to banks in 50 counties.

God’s Pantry and other Kentucky food banks report that demand is up about 30 percent from last year. October was God’s Pantry’s biggest month ever, with 2,400 families served locally.

Food bank directors say many families seeking assistance still have someone employed, but they have seen hours, pay or benefits cut. Others have been laid off or have seen contract work disappear; their unemployment benefits have run out, or they’re waiting for them to start.

“We have had the most people this year that we’ve ever had,” said Jerry Workman, volunteer director of the 30-year-old Berea Community Food Bank.

“Since demand is going up, it’s putting a strain on the food bank, so we’re asking people to be especially generous this season,” said Annette Ball of the Dare to Care Food Bank in Louisville, which has served a 13-county area since 1971.

“What we’re seeing are persons who haven’t been to a food pantry in a very long time,” said Debbie Long, director of God’s Food Pantry in Somerset. “For us, trying to keep up with the demand is very difficult.”

Debbie Amburgey, coordinator of God’s Pantry-East in Prestonsburg, which distributes food to 73 food banks in 12 southeastern Kentucky counties, said she expects the need to increase as the holidays approach. Relatives come home, and hard-pressed families use some of their food money to buy Christmas gifts for their children.

“It’s pretty serious,” said Thelma Willis, director of Helping Hands Food Pantry in Corbin. “There’s a lot of people laid off around here, and we’re having more elderly come in than usual.”

How can you help? Donating to your local food bank is an obvious answer. Beyond charity, though, there’s a growing movement to rebuild Kentucky’s capacity for community agriculture, especially in poor areas where quality of food is as big a problem as quantity.

One such group is a Lexington non-profit called Seedleaf. It works with neighborhoods to start community gardens and teach people how to grow, cook and preserve nutritious food. For more information, go to www.seedleaf.org.

Another effort is the Lexington Urban Gleaning Network, which collects leftover food from farmers, gardeners and fruit-tree owners and distributes it through God’s Pantry. For more information, e-mail John Walker at igrowfood@insightbb.com.

So as you sit down to your turkey, consider donating food, money or time to an organization that’s trying to meet Kentuckians’ immediate needs — or better prepare them to feed themselves.

It seemed almost inevitable.

Chris Canon’s family farmed hundreds of acres of cotton and soybeans in Mississippi. Sandy Canon’s parents raised begonias and fuchsia in California and finally “stopped entering them in fairs so other people could win.”

But the Canons had two sons, white-collar careers and a suburban home. Agriculture didn’t have a place in their busy lives until Chris got some 2×4s and built a raised bed in their backyard.

Then another. And another. And a dozen more.

“Chris kept planting more and more,” Sandy Canon said of her husband. “And I had to freeze it and can it.”

So, for the third summer, the Canons are selling vegetables once a week at the Lexington Farmer’s Market — most grown in their backyard and some in the fraction of an acre they cultivate on a wooded farm in Washington County.

“We make some pocket money, but a side benefit is that we’ve spent more time together than we have since before the children came,” she said. “And we really enjoy the people at the market. It’s a social experience.”

The Canons’ backyard on Duncan Avenue near the Red Mile is the smallest and most urban of the dozen Central Kentucky farms that will be on display Saturday during the self-guided Lexington Farmer’s Market Farm Tour.

Other farms on the tour include Abigail’s Apiary, which will demonstrate how bees work; Bleugrass Chevre, which specializes in goat cheeses; the Chrisman Mill and Lover’s Leap wineries; Henkle’s Herbs and heirloom tomatoes and the Barton Brothers’ sweet corn farm.

This is the 2nd annual tour sponsored by the Lexington Farmers’ Market, which recently moved its Saturday market to Cheapside and this week begins a Wednesday evening market at The Mall at Lexington Green. It also has a Sunday market on Southland Drive and Tuesday and Thursday markets at South Broadway and Maxwell streets.

The Lexington Farmers’ Market has been around since 1975, but its recent popularity coincides with growing public interest in locally grown food. Rona Roberts, a Lexington communications consultant who writes the Savoring Kentucky food blog, cites several reasons.

“Part of it is driven by a longing for flavor and the realization that the very best flavor comes from things closest to you,” Roberts said. “There’s a lot lost in transportation.”

That, along with more focus on health and nutrition, has prompted more people to buy produce from farmers’ markets and other local growers such as Elmwood Stock Farm in Georgetown and Honest Farm in Midway.

Many people are becoming more conscious of the environment. They’re concerned about agricultural chemicals and the petroleum used trucking food cross-country.

In addition, the economy has prompted people to look for ways to save money and make their communities more self-sustaining.

Local organizations such as Seedleaf are promoting urban gardening as a way to get nutritious, economical food to people at risk of hunger. Seedleaf teaches people how to grow food and helps establish community gardens.

On the farm tour last year, more than 50 people stopped by to see the Canons’ backyard garden. It inspired one woman to go home and build two raised beds in her backyard. “She said it changed her life,” Sandy Canon said.

More than anything, though, organizers want to inspire more loyal customers for local farmers. After all, that’s what it will take to grow and sustain a local food economy.

If you go

Lexington Farmers’ Market Farm Tour

Saturday, June 20, 10 a.m. to 5 p.m.

$10 adults, $5 students, younger than 12 free

More information: www.lexingtonfarmersmarket.com

Seedleaf: www.seedleaf.org

Savoring Kentucky: www.savoringkentucky.com