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KCBS Cover Story: East Bay Community Garden Helps Fight Hunger

DANVILLE (KCBS) – A Bay Area community garden is not only helping bring the city of Danville together, but also helping in the fight against hunger.

Children who play at Hap Magee Ranch Park in Danville are having their fun while nearby, volunteer gardeners grow vegetables. Heidi Abramson helps to oversee the operation on the small plot of land.

KCBS Cover Story: East Bay Community Garden Helps Fight Hunger

"A large impetus was to spread the knowledge and create a community around gardening. So there was a duel purpose," she said. "We call it the Bounty Garden because the bounty all goes to the community food bank."

Her daughter Amelia, who is now in college, got the ball rolling two years ago.

"In my sophomore year of high school, I went and visited the food bank and came home and told her about how I thought it was a big problem that so many people in our community need fresh produce, but the food bank simply isn't able to get it," Amelia said. "And my mom had this idea to come up with a community garden."

The Food Bank of Contra Costa and Solano is getting fresh vegetables, as "the bounty" comes twice a week for pickups because produce is always in such high demand.

Heidi Abramson said they really are doing something different.

"We're very different from a (normal) community garden in that while people are here learning, they also know that the end goal is not for themselves and they fell richer for that experience," she said.

The official grand opening for the Bounty Garden will be held on June 1, as visitors will be able to view the growing beds, speak with gardeners and get details about gardening classes, or how to register to become a Bounty Garden participant.

(Copyright 2013 by CBS San Francisco. All Rights Reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.)

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