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About Us

Our Mission Statement

America’s Grow-a-Row’s mission is to positively impact as many lives as possible through a volunteer effort of planting, picking, rescuing, and delivering free fresh produce. At America’s Grow-a-Row we:

  • Provide fresh, healthy produce to those in need
  • Educate people of all generations about hunger and ways to help
  • Introduce our youth to farming and healthy eating
  • Cultivate in tomorrow’s leaders the habit of giving back
  • Contribute to the sustainability of agriculture
Photo courtesy of John Park.

What We Do…

Planting & Harvesting

We GROW, GLEAN & GIVE® away free fresh produce by organizing groups to harvest from our own farms and our partner farms. (See locations below.) At each visit we provide a short presentation about hunger issues and healthy eating.

Free Farm Market® Program

Throughout the season (mid-July through October) we deliver produce every other week to food desert areas, areas where people lack access to healthy, fresh, affordable produce, in Newark, Jersey City, East Orange, Camden, Morristown, and eastern Pennsylvania to set up a Free Farm Market®.  By partnering with organizations in each of these areas, we can connect with residents in need of produce and thus help address issues of diabetes, obesity, and other health concerns that are often associated with food desert areas and financial hardship.

Grow-a-Row Kids Farm Days

We collaborate with our Free Farm Market® partners to bus children from the communities we serve to our farm during the summer months for Grow-a-Row Kids Farm Days. The children spend a day learning about nutrition, healthy eating, and agriculture; harvesting fresh fruits and vegetables to take home to their families and neighbors; and taking part in outdoor games and activities. For more information, email tristan@americasgrowarow.org.  A basic background check for volunteers will be required. 

Off the Field Gleaning

Every day, our volunteers rescue “not quite retail perfect” produce from ShopRite stores in Clinton, Flemington, Washington, and Chester to deliver it to local food pantries in New Jersey. Email jacqui@americasgrowarow.org to inquire about volunteer opportunities.

Grow-a-Row Education

Our virtual and onsite curriculum includes lessons on healthy eating, hunger awareness, and farming. In addition to our traditional experience-based healthy eating curriculum for children, America’s Grow-a-Row also offers culinary education that emphasizes budget-friendly healthy meals for families struggling to make ends meet and for people with diet-related health issues. For more information, please contact shauna@americasgrowarow.org.

Where We Do It

How It All Started

See a timeline here

The Seed Was Planted
In 2002, after seeing a plea from the Flemington Area Food Pantry requesting that local gardeners donate surplus produce, Chip Paillex and his daughter Kyra, who was four years old at the time, happily gave the excess vegetables they cultivated from their family garden to the food pantry.

That year Chip donated 120 pounds of fresh produce from his home garden to the food pantry. When Chip saw the need for fresh fruits and vegetables at local food pantries, he became inspired to grow more produce to feed the hungry. Today, America’s Grow-a-Row is a thriving 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Pittstown, NJ that donates 2.5 million pounds, or 10 million servings, of farm fresh produce annually to food banks, soup kitchens, and food pantries in New Jersey, New York City, Philadelphia and eastern Pennsylvania, and, through the Mid-Atlantic Regional Cooperative, the greater northeast region from Maine to Virginia.