August has been a very full month at our Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative Food Pantry garden.

Hot days, warm nights and a good amount of rainfall have helped our plants continue to produce incredibly well. We have been routinely picking zucchini and yellow squash, and until just the fourth week of August, they had not slowed down production.

We were fortunate to be able to offer all August pantry guests a variety of fresh vegetables, including zucchini, yellow squash, tomatoes, peppers, eggplant, red beets, radishes and parsley, in addition to cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, zucchini and apples donated by our generous community gardeners.

Combined with the produce boxes of lettuce, onions, lemons and grapes we received from Second Harvest Food Bank, it was a cornucopia of fresh produce for all guests! We were also able to supply some of our produce to WCHI’s community meal at Whitehall Bible Fellowship Church and to other food pantries in our area.

During our work night Aug. 1, pantry garden neighbors Walter and Stella walked down for a visit. In addition to donating items grown in his garden, Walter brought cleaner and brushes and generously scrubbed the algae and mud from our shed, while Stella, his dog, patrolled for groundhogs. Our shed looks brand new, thanks to Walter.

Thanks to Michael Agrippine and Whitehall-Coplay Press for featuring our pantry garden in the Aug. 17 edition. He stopped by the garden during a Tuesday work night to interview us and take photos, and I was pleasantly surprised to see us on pages one and two.

I want to recognize and thank our amazing local gardeners who have generously donated their garden and orchard bounty. So far this year, with your generous donations, more than 250 pounds of fresh produce has been contributed to Lehigh Valley Plant-a-Row.

Remember, our priority for donations is the WCHI Food Pantry and WCHI free community meals, then other local food pantries. Nothing goes to waste!

Any amount of produce, large or small, is greatly appreciated. Bring your donations to the vestibule at RE/Max Unlimited, 1080 Schadt Ave., Whitehall, 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m. Mondays through Fridays or call me at 610-379-6823 for other pickup or drop-off accommodations.

As I wrote in last month’s article, I was able to purchase broccoli, cabbage, Brussels sprouts and turnips from Seed Farm’s fall plant sale. These were planted in available beds in the pantry garden, and with some metal rabbit fence, the plants have remained untouched.

The Seed Farm reached out Aug. 28 to donate more plants and herbs to our garden. During our Aug. 29 work night, we cleared out our zucchini and yellow squash beds to make room for arugula, kale, Swiss chard, cabbage, turnips, bok choy, endive, basil and dill.

We expect to plant these at our work night Sept. 5. With continued sun, heat and rain and without critter interference, we should be able to offer pantry garden produce to our WCHI guests throughout the fall.

Finally, my article would not be complete without sharing our fabulous year-to-date pantry garden yield of 373 zucchini, 222 yellow squash, 24 bags of radishes, 65 tomatoes, 95 peppers, seven bags of red beets, 42 eggplants and a tote bag full of parsley.

I hope your gardens have been just as successful.

Editor’s note: Written by Gwen Herzog, Whitehall-Coplay Hunger Initiative vegetable garden chair