This is straight from the press release:

Newfoundland NJ - (October 15, 2014) - AmpleHarvest.org, the nationwide program that enables tens of millions of home and community gardeners to donate excess garden produce to a nearby food pantry announces that more than 7,000 food pantries, food banks, soup kitchens, food closets, food shelves and food cupboards are now "visible" to nearby growers eager to donate their excess harvest.

I wrote a couple years ago about AmpleHarvest.org, which had the simple idea of making local food pantries more visible to the thousands of local growers who plant too much and can't use all their produce at harvest time.

Growers, many of the backyard variety, can go to the site, plug in their zip code, and see all the food pantries around them that accept fresh food. Well, all such pantries that are listed on the site, anyway.

More out of service to my wife and family than for personal connection, I attended a fundraising event for the Samaritans this afternoon. What I learned:

* Calls to the suicide-prevention service have increased 20 percent since the Marathon attack. I assume that that's local to Greater Boston.

As an advocate on issues including obesity, nutrition, and school food, I’ve had an opinion on bake sales, and especially school bake sales, for some time. But until about a week ago, they were something that people did, as opposed to something that people did in my son’s school.

At least a few words are due AmpleHarvest.org, which allows food pantries and food growers — including backyard growers who can't eat everything when the harvest comes in — to connect with each other. The site lists 4,100 pantries in all 50 states that accept gresh produce and is still growing.

If you have more than you can use, what better solution than to look up where you can share with families in need?

Georgie and I have contributed to Cradle to Crayons in the past, and we got this notice this morning:

As the cold weather approaches, C2C has seen a sharp increase in requests for winter essentials, and our clothing supply is running dangerously low.

We are in need of boys' and girls' winter clothes, especially pants sizes 2T through adult sizes. To help local children stay safe and warm this winter, we need your help!