At Poulsbo’s Valley Nursery, magic happened when employees Sue Lukins and Paula Anderson found they were having some similar ideas about how to give back to the community.

Lukins had the idea of donating the harvest from the demonstration container garden she created to the local food bank, Fishline.  Kelly Knight, who works at both the nursery and ShareNet, suggested they send some down the road as well.

“Grow a row” or “plant a row” have become phrases associated with national campaigns encouraging home gardeners and others to think of the food insecurity in many households when they plant their own garden, and to set aside part of their plot for donating. It was a natural fit at Valley Nursery, where Anderson is the public relations director and Lukins is a custom container designer.

Lukins, a long-time volunteer at Bainbridge Helpline House, was well aware of how food banks work and the problem of hunger and food affordability in the community. Anderson created a coupon raffle book — five coupons for five raffles — held monthly for such prizes as birdbaths and garden statuary.  They sold 333 coupon books during the first month. In the end they raised $1,000 for charity.

Their second coupon book goes on sale Aug. 11; proceeds will benefit North Kitsap Fishline and ShareNet.

Another employee, Terry Mitchell, had the idea to use galvanized metal fan boxes for the containers the produce would be grown in. They have also grown in potato bags, which are great heat conductors and have also yielded eggplants, peppers and tomatoes.

Their harvest now benefits both Fishline and ShareNet, and even in our short growing season has yielded lettuce, Swiss chard, peas, beans and some of the most beautiful, perfect looking bok choy you’ve ever seen. Frequently, this is a bedraggled-looking vegetable in local stores, possibly because it is shipped far or hangs around not selling, but the bok choy donated to ShareNet could have been photographed for a magazine cover. Many people around the world believe bok choy to be one of the truly foundational vegetables for good health.

As shoppers know, Valley Nursery, owned by Brad Watts, is one of those long-standing Kitsap businesses with a homey feeling contributed to by a resident cat, Bizzie, and an almost-resident dog, Cassey, roaming the grounds, and of course some great employees. There’s also that feeling that anything could grow, even in a sun-challenged climate.Dedicated staff members have shown it’s possible to include charitable concerns in a seamless, business-friendly way and ShareNet appreciates being one of their beneficiaries.

Our Back to School Supplies event will be held as usual during the week before school starts.  Last year, we fully stocked new backpacks with all new supplies for 130 local kids in need so they could start the school year right. This event and all the extensive prep that goes into it is volunteer-staffed, but contributions are welcome for the backpacks and supplies which must be purchased.

We enjoyed seeing all the well-wishers and wavers at Kingston’s 4th of July Parade. Thanks for the support.

It was a beautiful 4th and we had a new banner made to deck our participating van, which reminded people that ShareNet begins and ends with community.  Your donations throughout the year and to our annual campaign Neighbor Aid allow us to serve as the conduit for putting that money to work in valuable crisis services to the community.

— Mark Ince is executive director of ShareNet.