Rock Rapids, Iowa — Volunteers are needed for an ISU demonstration garden in Rock Rapids that donates produce to area food pantries.
Iowa State University (ISU) Extension and Outreach is searching for volunteers to help with the harvest of produce at the ISU Research and Demonstration Garden this summer. The garden is located at the Lyon County Fairgrounds in Rock Rapids. Extension Horticulturist Margaret Murphy tells us about the garden.
She says they also collect information on what they harvest from the various new and different cultivars that they grow, and people are welcome to come out to the garden and taste them and take a look at them. She says sometimes they get varieties that grow very well in our soil and climate, and sometimes they get some that are not well-suited to our area, and that’s part of the research.
She tells us how to proceed if you’d like to help.
She says they invite volunteers to help harvest and deliver produce to several pantries in Lyon, Sioux, Osceola and O’Brien Counties. She says that whether you can help in the garden for an occasional afternoon or weekly throughout the summer, they welcome the assistance and they also welcome clubs and organizations who are looking for extra community service projects.
Again the training will be held starting at noon on June 12 at the ISU Extension and Outreach Lyon County office on Highway 9 East in Rock Rapids. Contact Murphy at 712-472-2576 or mmurphy@iastate.edu to sign up. She says if you’d like to participate but the time or date of the training don’t work for you, give her a call anyway, and they’ll set something up so you can get the information you need to know to help.
