By Staff
Michigan Nature Association (MNA) teamed up with Second Harvest Gleaners Food Bank of West Michigan in Grand Rapids for an unusual, first-ever partnership between the two non-profit groups that aims to help feed hungry people while saving natural areas that include Dowagiac Woods and another nature sanctuary near Decatur.
Thousands of plans with leaves intact will be uprooted by MNA volunteers and donated the same day to Second Harvest Gleaners, which will distribute them with recipes to the needy through the charities it serves.
MNA has planned volunteer work days at three preserves to harvest garlic mustard for Second Harvest Gleaners. They are:
Tuesday, March 29, from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. at Dowagiac Woods Nature Sanctuary on Frost Street in Pokagon Township.
Wednesday, April 6, from 8 a.m. to 11 a.m. at the Hamilton Township Coastal Plains Marsh Nature Sanctuary near Decatur.
Tuesday, April 12, from 8 am. to 11:30 a.m. at the Trillium Ravine Plant Preserve near Buchanan.
Garlic mustard is an ongoing threat to natural areas targeted by MNA each spring before plants flower and produce seeds, according to Kent.
Although other management options include herbicide application and/or burning, garlic mustard plants are usually manually pulled and placed into garbage bags destined for landfills.
Yet recipes abound for soups, salads, entrees and even desserts using garlic mustard, which contains by weight more vitamin C than oranges and more vitamin A than spinach, Kent said.
Kent contacted Second Harvest Gleaners to help solve the problem.
A member of the national America's Second Harvest, Gleaners is west Michigan's clearinghouse for donated food that goes to charities providing food assistance to the needy.
Gleaners supplies about 1.4 million pounds of food per month to about 1,200 agencies in a 40-county service area.
MNA, founded in 1952 as the state's first land preservation organization, maintains more than 160 nature sanctuaries statewide, totaling more than 8,000 acres.
In addition to the three in this area, MNA will harvest garlic mustard from three others in south-central and southeast Michigan that will be donated to nearby food banks.
If you'd like to help pull garlic mustard, contact Natalie Kent at 517/655-5655 or natalie@michigannature.org.
To learn more about the MNA, visit www.michigannature.org.
For details on Second Harvest Gleaners, visit www.wmgleaners.org.