At this time of the year, you or perhaps a neighbor, co-worker or friend, may be tending to a home garden.  I'm sure that you have heard this before: "take some of these tomatoes!" (or zucchini's, green peppers, etc.).  I heard a story this week from someone who had a neighbor who had so many extra tomatoes last year that they rotted on the vine.

Well, Gemma's Angels has a great anti-dote to that problem with our new Donate-a-Tomato Program.  If you, or someone you know, has or is expecting a very good harvest this year and want to share in the bounty, we'll take that extra produce and distribute it to soup kitchens and shelters in the area.

In our work over the years with area shelters, we discovered that they receive plenty of canned and dry goods, but very little fresh produce.  Our goal, through this new program, is to improve that situation.  In the past few years, we have received and distributed surplus produce from Milton Hershey School.  We would like to build on that success with this program.  Starting this year, we also will begin to purchase produce at wholesale prices using cash donations.  Just yesterday, I bought $50 of produce at below wholesale prices from Schaeffer Farms, a vendor at the new Hershey Farmer's Market.  This beautiful produce of cherries, blueberries, cantaloupe, green peppers, corn and onions is piled high in the back seat of my car and will be distributed today.

You may ask, how can I help?  First, if you have or know someone with a garden, we'll take what we can get.  Secondly, we will accept cash donations to help with our (hopefully) weekly purchase of wholesale produce.  Simply send your check, payable to Gemma's Angels, to the address below.  If you are interested in helping us collect or deliver, we'll take that help too!

If you have any questions about the program or want more information, don't hesitate to call Mike at 717-220-1061.