The work we do at Farm Fresh RI wouldn’t be possible without our volunteers. We hold enormous gratitude for all of our past, present, and future volunteers.
Today we are celebrating Donna Matthews. Donna has been volunteering with Hope’s Harvest since 2021 and also volunteers with one of Hope’s Harvest’s community partners, St. John’s Lodge Food Bank. She has been a Volunteer Trip Leader since 2023, providing a fruitful connection between the food pantry and Garman Farm, a partner farm in Middletown, RI.
Donna began gleaning after she heard about Hope’s Harvest from friends that were involved in the University of Rhode Island’s Master Gardener program. As an avid gardener herself, as well as a food pantry volunteer, Donna saw the value of making fresh vegetables available to all.
In 2023 Donna became a volunteer trip leader for Hope’s Harvest, establishing a direct connection between Garman Farm and St. John’s Lodge Food Bank. Hope’s Harvest contracts with Garman Farm to grow specifically for St. John’s Lodge and during the summer Donna makes weekly pickups from the farm and brings the produce to the food pantry for distribution.
The Portsmouth Emergency Food Bank was opened in March 2020 and was based out of St. Barnabas Church before moving to its new home in St. John’s Lodge in August 2020 and being renamed St. John’s Lodge Food Bank.
Donna retired from her career in engineering in June 2020 and knew that she wanted to volunteer to keep busy. She says the Covid pandemic gave her a push into volunteering in the emergency food system – first, through volunteering at St. John’s Lodge Food Pantry since 2020 and then later, also gleaning with Hope’s Harvest.
She and Mary Ann, the food bank’s director, emphasize that the emergence of St. John’s Lodge Food Bank and its continued success is a truly “home-grown” operation. Not many of the pantry’s volunteers had previous experience working in food systems but all have something important to offer from their varied backgrounds. Together these volunteers have been able to build a successful and sustainable emergency food service for their community.
Over the years of their operation, food pantry volunteers have created meaningful connections within their community and developed relationships with their clients. The pantry serves up to 150 families each week and to do so relies on the generosity of about 18 weekly volunteers in addition to the help of numerous others. The food pantry is open to all who need its services and is not limited to Portsmouth residents.
Food recovery has been a central avenue through which the food pantry acquires much of the food it gives out. Several local businesses such as BJ’s, Food Love, The French Confection, and Provencal donate to the pantry on a weekly basis and numerous other businesses donate intermittently.
In addition to recovered food, the pantry uses its budget, made up primarily of private donations, to purchase staples that they always have on hand including meat, milk, fruit, eggs, and bread. The pantry also receives food from various food drives run by local schools and organizations in Portsmouth.
St. John’s Lodge Food Bank is also a recipient of funding from the Farm to Food Pantry program, run by Farm Fresh RI, that allows Rhode Island food pantries to purchase local produce, dairy, eggs, and meat through the Market Mobile online ordering platform for their clients.
Hope’s Harvest has donated over 16,400 pounds of fresh produce to St. John’s Lodge Food Bank since the beginning of our partnership. Donna expresses that it has been a special experience to be able to bring fresh, local vegetables from Hope’s Harvest to the food pantry and give it out to those who need it, adding that she and the volunteers at St. John’s Lodge are “grateful for how well we’re taken care of by Hope’s Harvest.”
Farm Fresh RI is beyond grateful for Donna and the bridges she has been able to build between our organizations. Thank you, Donna, for your support of Hope’s Harvest, and your commitment to improving food security in your community.