Members of the Unitarian Universalist Church in Haverhill are helping to fill local food pantries and their neighbors' dinner plates with fresh, sweet corn.
The city's UU church, Catholic Charities of Boston, Community Action and a number of independent volunteers have entered the corn harvesting season of the 2010 Cornucopia Project, giving of their time and energy to feed the hungry.
The Cornucopia Project has enjoyed 13 years of productive corn harvesting and community participation throughout Haverhill under the leadership of project chairmen Peter Reinhold and Delight Reese.
The project draws a dozen volunteers twice a week to Sunday Farm in Merrimac to harvest an acre of sweet corn.
All the ears, which can range between 8,000 and 12,000 per season, are donated to Catholic Charities' Open Hand Food Pantry, which operates at the Universalist Unitarian Church on Kenoza Avenue, and to other organizations such as Community Action.
Due to financial and size constraints, the project's members harvest each ear by hand and, despite the dirt and dust, consider the experience enriching. Volunteers range in age from teens to seniors who typically give up about two hours from their Monday and Thursday nights to get lost among the stalks.
Members of the UU church harvest on Monday, while vounteers from Community Action take part on Thursday.
"You get to appreciate where food comes from," said Reese, co-chairwoman of the Cornucopia Project. "It makes you stop and think food doesn't automatically come packaged."
Bill LaPierre, chairman of the Greater Haverhill Hunger Roundtable, comes ready to work each Monday and Thursday with burlap bags suspended from both his shoulders.
"Coming out and picking corn is like getting down in the trenches," he said.
Danny Gray, 20, has taken part in the program for four years and is among the youngest members.
"It makes me feel like I accomplished something," he said. "At the end of the day, doing something out of the kindness of your heart is a nice thing to do."
For him, it's also a chance to know the difficulty many farmers face daily.
"We only do this for a few hours," he said. "Some people do this every day."
While members pull the ears themselves, the burden of planting and raising the corn falls with Sunday Farm owners Jason and Melissa Sargent.
The Sargents usually offer to raise the corn at rate far below market value in the name of charity.
"We believe it's a good project," Melissa Sargent said.
Jason Sargent said all of the sweet corn raised on Sunday Farm, which normally grows strawberries and blueberries, goes toward the Cornucopia Project.
Reinhold said his and Reese's involvement with the program came as a natural extension of their hobbies and faith.
"We're both longtime gardeners," he said. "We just took to it."
How you can help the hungry
You don't have to go into a cornfield or know how to garden to help stock a local food pantry.
The Eagle-Tribune, sister paper to The Haverhill Gazette, is hosting a food drive at its North Andover office, 100 Turnpike St., on Saturday, Aug. 28, from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. Donors will be able to drive into the newspaper's lot, hand food to a volunteer, and drive out again without having to exit their cars.
All food collected will be given to the Lazarus House Ministries Food Pantry in Lawrence.
The drive is co-sponsored by the Rotary Club and the Merrimack Valley Chamber of Commerce.
