ITHACA, NY – Backyard gardeners and other area growers donated more than 8,268 pounds of produce to neighbors in need via Friendship Donations Network’s Neighborhood Food Hubs.

“The Neighborhood Food Hubs were designed to make it easy for people to donate extra garden produce, by dropping it off at any of the 15 hubs located throughout Tompkins County,” said Meaghan Sheehan Rosen, FDN coordinator. “Friendship Donations Network is grateful to the community members who donated their homegrown produce, and to the volunteers who made this project possible,” she said.

The hubs are coolers with the FDN logo on them that sit on the porches of volunteers who deliver the fresh vegetables and fruits they collect to the local food pantry, or to Friendship Donations’ facility in the Just Be Cause Center on W. Martin Luther King Jr./State St., where it is sorted and distributed to area food pantries.

In addition to donations from home gardeners and CSA members, the following farms donated produce directly to Neighborhood Food Hubs in their communities: Blue Heron Farm, Buried Treasures Organic Farm, Danby Farms, Ithaca Children’s Garden, Ithaca Organics, Remembrance Farm, Six Circles Farm, The Youth Farm Project, and vendors at Congo Square Market.

The 2015 Neighborhood Food Hubs season, which ran from July 1 to Oct. 1, was made possible through donations from the Ithaca Alternative Gift Fair and Ithaca Sign Works, and a grant from the Sustainable Tompkins Neighborhood Mini-grant program.

Friendship Donations Network, which was founded in 1988 by Sara Pines, operates year round to rescue fresh, nutritious food that would otherwise be thrown away at area stores and farms. Its volunteers then redistribute food donations to neighbors in need through pantries and programs that serve more than 2,100 people weekly. Each year FDN diverts over 500,000 lbs. of good food from local landfill.