In 2002, Chip Paillex was looking for a way to spend time with his daughter Kyra and teach her about healthy eating. The family vegetable garden they started eventually grew so much excess produce that they were giving it to family members and Chip’s coworkers. When even these recipients politely explained that they couldn’t take another zucchini, Chip looked for other places to share his surplus. Inspired by an article in his local New Jersey paper featuring the Flemington Area Food Pantry’s encouragement to farmers to “grow a row for the hungry,” Chip and Kyra donated 120 pounds of produce to the food pantry.

At the time, the pantry had mostly canned goods and boxed nonperishables. While he was delivering his produce, a woman came up to Chip and said, “Promise me you’re going to come back because this is the first time the Flemington Food Pantry has ever received fresh produce, and I need it for my health conditions. I rely on it.” Chip promised he’d be back. Several years later, in 2008, Chip incorporated America’s Grow-a-Row as a nonprofit organization. It now has thirty staff members and grows eighteen varieties of fruits and vegetables on 423 acres across four properties. Through farming, gleaning, and giving, the organization (entirely privately funded) provides nutritious food and food education to those in need.

Produce is locally distributed for free at pop-up farm markets in underserved areas in Jersey City, Newark, and Camden where many people don’t have access to fresh produce. Chip and his staff soon realized that these communities needed not only food but education as well. Those experiencing hunger or food insecurity may not have a microwave, a full-size fridge, or more than one skillet and a spatula. The produce itself may be unfamiliar. Culinary education, therefore, is offered for adults and youth in an onsite commercial farm-to-fork kitchen headed by the executive chef, Shauna Alvarez. In the summer, children from various cities come to the farm for a two-week program where they learn basic culinary skills and pick food to bring home from the fields.

In addition to these local initiatives, America’s Grow-a-Row widens its impact via partnerships with other regional food banks and community organizations to distribute produce throughout New Jersey, Pennsylvania, New York, Connecticut, and other areas of the Eastern Seaboard. While not a part of a food network such as Feeding America themselves, America’s Grow-a-Row donates its produce to such places across twenty-two states.

Volunteers from local schools, churches, and corporate groups are essential to this wide-ranging work. On a typical day on the farm from July through November, up to two hundred people can be found harvesting the fields. During the off-season, volunteers and staff members glean additional food by driving to supermarkets and “rescuing” food that has been deemed unfit for sale, sometimes simply because it doesn’t look perfect.

America’s Grow-a-Row is committed to land stewardship and sustainable agriculture, utilizing no-till farming, cover crops, and crop rotation to encourage growth and retain nutrients in the fields. The staff and volunteers use drip irrigation lines and integrated pest management, and they work with the local township to receive leaf mulch and other organic matter. The farm also has its own apiaries with about 2.6 million bees, whose pollination improves the apple yield.

America’s Grow-a-Row began with a father and daughter’s simple desire to share the (literal) fruits of their harvest. This year, the organization is on track to donate 3.6 million pounds of farm-fresh produce, which amounts to 14.4 million servings – enough to feed a line of people that stretches twenty-two miles – per day. That’s a lot of neighbors.