Grow and Give Produce Donation Program

a honeycomb motif of many photos of bright, beautiful produce and the volunteers that helped with Plant A Row in 2022

2024 Pounds Donated

1798

Ames Main Street Farmers Market vendors
1718

Reiman Gardens
2588

ISU Horticulture Research
11542

Ames community growers and farmers

Fighting Food Insecurity in Central Iowa

As of 2025, 16% of Story County residents are food insecure, 10% have limited access to healthy food, and 26.5% of Story County students are eligible for free and reduced meals at school. (https://www.uwstory.org/health)

In response to this major concern, Grow and Give volunteers at Reiman Gardens grow, glean, and give fresh, free produce to area food pantries. Volunteers can

tend and harvest our gardens at Reiman,
bring extra produce from their home gardens or farms,
glean from the Ames Main Street Farmers Market and the ISU Horticulture Research Farm,
weigh, sort, and deliver donated produce to pantries

Donate fresh produce

If you are a home gardener or you want to purchase extra produce for those in need, Reiman Gardens makes it easy! Drop off any fresh produce at Reiman Gardens on Monday mornings between 7:30 and 9:00 a.m. Our team of volunteers will collect, weigh, sort, and deliver produce to one of ten food pantries in Story County (and Boone in September/October!).

Volunteer

Reiman Gardens has many ways to volunteer your time to support this mission:

Collect left-over produce from vendors at the Ames Main Street Farmers Market on Saturdays.
Tend one of the many produce garden at Reiman Gardens on weekday mornings.
Weigh, distribute, and drop-off donated produce each Monday with other volunteers.
Tell your friends and others in the community to support Grow and Give!

To volunteer with us, create your account in our volunteer management system, Better Impact. We'll get you onboarded and trained to fight insecurity in Story County!

Thank you to Annie Gulick, ISU Graphic Design major and Reiman Gardens volunteer, for the creation of our Grow and Give logos.

Thank you to Iowa State University's 3D Printing Club (especially Owen Embree) for designing the 3D printing files used to create our farmer's market vendor badges.

Thank you to our many regular Reiman Gardens volunteers:

Monday Morning Crew: Dave and Laura Miller, Teresa Rosenberg, Glen Umbaugh, Dr. Donald and Dorothy Lewis
Pantry Deliveries outside of Ames: Kathi Craven, Linda Sharpnack
Community Partners: ISU Horticulture Research Farm, Ames Main Street Farmer's Market

Reiman Gardens relies on the donations of our local home gardeners and farmers. Resources below provided by Iowa State University Extension and Outreach.

Grower information for food pantry donations.

Top 13 vegetables to donate to food pantries.

In 2025, groups from the community were invited to sponsor a garden bed. These volunteers provide weekly support in weeding, watering, pest-scouting, harvesting, and more to ensure that we get the most produce we can into our food pantries. Garden beds were created with the support of our new Growing Together grant.

The following organizations are responsible for partial or full care of specific produce gardens at Reiman Gardens.