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A father shows his daughter sprouts at the Vallejo People’s Garden in California. (Photo: USFS Region 5/Flickr)

This story originally appeared on Mother Nature Network.

It hurts when your stomach is empty. Across the land of plenty that is the United States, 49 million people in 17.6 million households feel that pain.

The almost 18 million homes with no food, an insufficient amount of food or a lack of healthful food represent 14.5 percent of all U.S. households, according to U.S. Department of Agriculture statistics for 2012. The USDA has a name for this aspect of hunger: food insecurity.

Food insecurity means that a household is uncertain of having, or is not able to acquire, enough food to meet the needs of all of its members because of insufficient money or other resources. These households are present in every state and most communities across the U.S., especially in rural areas.

It doesn’t have to be this way, says USDA spokesperson Wendy Wasserman.

“There are at least three resources that gardening enthusiasts concerned with eliminating food insecurity should know about,” Wasserman says.

These resources connect everyday gardeners and volunteers and the food they grow or collect with food banks and pantries. The USDA supports two of these resources and partners with the third.

One resource is the USDA People’s Garden, a collaborative effort of more than 700 local and national organizations that establish community and school gardens across the country and donate food to the needy.

The second is the USDA Guide to Gleaning, an online toolkit that helps people collect excess fresh foods from farms, gardens, farmers markets, grocery stores, restaurants, state/county fairs or other sources and provide it to those in need.

A third resource, Wasserman said, is AmpleHarvest.org, A USDA partner nonprofit that helps the 42 million Americans who grow fruit, vegetables, herbs and nuts in a home garden find local food pantries where they can donate their harvests.

If you would like to help alleviate food insecurity in America, here is a guide to creating a People’s Garden with like-minded neighbors, tips on collecting excess food, and an online search function for locating food banks or food pantries in your area that accept donated food and distribute it to those in need.

Volunteers harvest from the Headquarters People’s Garden, in Washington, D.C., every Tuesday. (Photo: USDA/Flickr)

People’s Garden

The USDA launched the People’s Garden initiative in 2009. The name honors President Abraham Lincoln’s description of the USDA, which he created in 1862, as the “People’s Department.”

The original goal of the 2009 initiative was to challenge USDA employees to create gardens at agency facilities. Since then, local and national groups have embraced this concept and established community and school gardens in all 50 states, three U.S. territories and eight foreign countries.

People’s Gardens exist in every shape and size imaginable, but the USDA requires that all of them share three common characteristics: They must benefit the community by creating a recreational space or providing harvest for a local food bank or shelter, they must be a collaborative partnership of local people or groups, and they must incorporate sustainable practices.

Although People’s Gardens are most often established as vegetable gardens, they can also be created for beautification, as wildlife habitats or for other purposes as long as they meet the three criteria noted above. The USDA invites workers at all People’s Gardens that produce food to donate their harvests to those in need, but makes this an official requirement if the garden is on property owned or leased by the USDA.

Existing garden community or school gardens can gain the People’s Garden designation as long as they meet the USDA’s requirements. Home gardens are not eligible to become a People’s Garden.

As of May, volunteers have contributed 211,884 hours to 2,014 People’s Gardens across the country and beyond. Their efforts have produced at least 3.8 million pounds of produce.

If you would like to volunteer at a People’s Garden, you can find out if there is one in your community by visiting the People’s Garden website and entering your city and state.

For questions about People’s Gardens, contact Wasserman at [email protected] or 202 260 8023.

Gleaners make a second pass through a cabbage field in Maryland. (Photo: DC Central Kitchen/Flickr)

USDA Guide to Gleaning

Gleaning in this case refers to the simple act of collecting and donating excess food. If this is a practice that appeals to you, you won’t have any trouble finding food to collect. Each year, Americans throw away more than 100 billion pounds of food, according to the USDA, which based its calculations on a New York Times article, “One Country’s Table Scraps, Another Country’s Meal.”

Places to collect excess food include farmers markets, nearby restaurants, supermarkets, neighbor’s gardens, community gardens, area farmers, state and county fairs and any other food sellers or distributors. Incentives are that donations are tax exempt, the Bill Emerson Good Samaritan Act removes all liability for food donations if donors take basic precautions to ensure the safety of food, and participating in food gleaning to serve those in need is an excellent way to promote a business.

The USDA has published an online toolkit to help you start a gleaning program in your community. The toolkit explains gleaning and its benefits in detail and offers a guideline on how to set up a program.

Farmers donate some their crops to a food pantry in Louisiana. (Photo: Billy Brown/Flickr)

AmpleHarvest.org

Now that you’ve grown or collected food to donate, how do you find a food bank or pantry to accept it? That’s where AmpleHarvest.org comes in.

Ample Harvest is a 501(c)3 charitable organization that helps people find food pantries where they can donate surplus food and provides an online site where food pantries can register to help donors can find them. A list of food pantries is available online. You can also use AmpleHarvest.org’s iPhone or Android apps to find a local food pantry when you are shopping. Food pantries can register on the website.

To help publicize its efforts, in addition to online search functions, AmpleHarvest.org offers fliers, newsletter articles and a media information page on its website. The site includes an FAQ that answers questions such as the difference between a food bank (large operations that deliver food to food pantries) and food pantries (walk-in facilities where families in need can go to get food).

No accurate statistics are available on how many food pantries exist in the United States. According to some estimates, there may be more than 40,000. Whatever the actual number, it is large — large enough for there to be one near you.

USDA employees in Tennessee visit their local Second Harvest Food Bank. (Photo: USDA/Flickr)

Other resources

There are other resources available to individuals and farmers who want to help alleviate hunger in America.

Feeding America, the nation’s leading domestic hunger-relief charity, seeks to feed America’s hungry through a nationwide network of farmers and member food banks. A program called Invest an Acre encourages farmers across the country to donate a portion of their harvests to help fight hunger in their own communities. Also, 18 Feeding America member food banks have working farms or large community gardens that vary in size from half an acre to more than 100 acres and grow a wide range of produce depending on the community need.

In addition, Feeding America has a long-standing partnership with Harvest for All to use the bounty produced on the nation’s farms and ranches. Through this nationwide program, the American Farm Bureau’s Young Farmers and Ranchers donate food, funds and volunteer hours to help create a hunger-free America.

Plant a Row for the Hungry is a campaign of the Garden Writers Association and the GWA Foundation. In this public service program, the GWA asks member writers and communicators to encourage their readers, viewers and listeners to plant an extra row of produce each year and donate their surplus to local food pantries, emergency kitchens and service organizations.

Separately, small farmers who may be averse to joining organizations can get in on the act by contacting food banks in their area or their local community-supported agricultural network about where and how to donate fruits, vegetables and herbs, or meats and poultry products for the hungry.

Spoiler: It tastes like bland salami.

Brunch is a beloved eating event treasured by the hungry and the hungover. For many, this portmanteau of two meals serves as a weekend social occasion to catch up with friends, get a little buzzed and soak up the previous night’s bad decisions.

But in truth, brunch in itself is a bad decision. It kind of sucks. It’s appallingly expensive, and excessive brunching is almost definitely bad for your health. Today, in HuffPost Debbie Downers, we’re going to explain why going to brunch is such a terrible choice.

First and foremost, there’s the line…

Chances are, when you want brunch, so does everyone else in your city. You’ve likely experienced it before: You intend to dine around 11:30 a.m., but you aren’t seated until noon. Besides the hunger factor — which is a big one — waiting in line is a stressful activity that may even be taking a toll on your health. Research shows it can be a catalyst for increased heart rate and blood pressure.

When a noon brunch is your first meal of the day, you suffer.

Brunch, inherent in its name, is the combination of breakfast and lunch. The melding of the two mealtimes allows for menu items that would break the rules if they were strictly reserved for breakfast or lunch individually. And that is fun.

But the rule-breaking gets dangerous when you omit breakfast from your morning for the sake of “saving room.” Experts beyond your mother will argue that you’re missing out on the immense health benefits of breakfast (at a normal hour).

Breakfast eaters win big: They’re more likely to have better blood sugar and cholesterol levels, feel more alert throughout the day and have a boosted short-term memory than those who skip the morning meal.

Research has found an association between skipping breakfast and heart issues like coronary disease and heart attacks. And, according to another study, those who neglect breakfast are more likely to be obese.

It doesn’t end there. Without food first thing to get you going, you can expect hanger: The headaches, mood swings and fatigue that come along with low blood sugar.

Drinks are way overpriced.

Bars and restaurants can mark up alcohol by sometimes more than 500 percent, and wine often has especially high markups. And what popular brunch drink contains wine? Mimosas, made with sparkling wine (or Champagne, if it’s from France) and OJ. A basic mimosa can cost $12 at some fancy New York City brunch spots. By spending $20 on a bottle of sparkling wine, you could make very respectable mimosas at home for just $3.50 a glass.

Would you like a mimosa? Or how about a mimosa?

But what about bottomless brunch?

“All you can drink” brunch discounts may seem like a good deal, but restaurants can have ulterior motives. Often, bottomless brunch specials are what economists call “loss leaders,” designed to hook customers so they keep coming back and spend more later at the same eatery. Restaurants will cut you off if you get too drunk or when time’s up. And there seems to be some confusion over whether limitless drinks are even legal.

Also, some restaurants water down these unlimited adult beverages, meaning you need to drink a ton to get a buzz. Which leads us to our next point…

That boozy bonanza will lead you to consume more liquid calories than you probably planned for.

No, there’s nothing wrong with a drink at brunch. But with the opportunity to go bottomless, you’ll be more inclined to throw them back. After all, while you think you’re getting a bang for your buck, you’re subjecting yourself to the painful consequences of binge drinking and consuming a ton of calories.

Let’s break it down for brunch: A classic bloody mary contains around 170 calories. A refreshing mimosa will clock in around 100 cals and a sangria (with all the fruity works) contains a bit more than 250 calories. In a single serving, none of these stats are terribly alarming. But at a bottomless brunch, where the booze flows like well, wine, it’s difficult to have control over how much you’re consuming.

In this case, two sangrias will set you back 500 calories, but you won’t be able to fully recognize how much you’re guzzling if the drink’s served in a pitcher. And when the buzz hits, you’ll be more likely to fill yourself with additional calories. “Alcohol lowers your inhibitions,” Rebecca Scritchfield, a registered dietitian, told The Huffington Post in an email. And this “can hinder you from realizing how full or satisfied you are.” “Bring on the bloodies,” you’ll slur.

Here’s the vicious cycle that is weekend brunch (story continues after the graphic):

Typical brunch fare doesn’t tend to be “healthy.”

Indulging in a decadent brunch on occasion — even licking the plate clean — isn’t really a gut buster. “Get what you want and eat until you are full,” Scritchfield said. “If all you really want is that pancake, then go for it.” But when brunch becomes a ritual, and lowered inhibitions become a regular guest of that party, calories add up (and as a result, so do the pounds). A few facts that might make you momentarily put down your fork:

A single ounce of bacon contains 30 milligrams of cholesterol. (A full 68 percent of bacon’s calories come from fat — and half of that fat is the saturated kind.) Diets high in cholesterol are associated with increased risk of heart disease and stroke. Bacon is also salty: Just four to five slices of the stuff will bring you up to half of your daily recommended sodium intake. Like cholesterol, high-salt diets have been linked with high blood pressure and heart disease.

Mmm, the smell of that sticky syrup that dressed up your pancakes lingers all day long (probably because you got some in your hair). So too do the health effects of all that sweet stuff. Just a single tablespoon of maple syrup — probably not enough to properly fill each waffle cranny — contains 14 grams of sugar. The World Health Organization recommends limiting your intake to 25 grams a day. Consuming too much added sugar is linked with many not-so-sweet health risks, like high cholesterol, type 2 diabetes and heart disease.

And the food’s overpriced, too.

It’s no surprise that food at restaurants is going to be more expensive than it is at home, but brunch may be especially prone to rip-offs. For one, brunch spots — particularly those offering a buffet — tend to create dishes using whatever ingredients are left over from the week prior. And certain brunch-specific items, like pancakes and eggs, can be especially overpriced in restaurants.

The average price of an egg for consumers is just $0.17, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics. Compare that to $2, $3 and even $6 for the price of an egg side dish at some popular brunch places across the U.S.

Wait, I paid how much for this?

In fact, discount deals often make you feel worse.

Bottomless or all-you-can eat brunches can have the doubly negative effect of causing brunchers to eat more and enjoy it less, according to a study by Cornell economists David Just and Brian Wansink. The study found customers typically try to recoup the cost of flat-rate meals by eating more, despite the fact that doing so made them enjoy the food less.

It’s also bad for servers.

Even though servers have to get up early on the weekend to work brunch shifts, there’s anecdotal evidence that they get less in tips. Also, studies have found that servers get more tips when they have more opportunity to interact with customers, something that can be hard to do at brunch buffets or in really busy restaurants.

Your productivity plummets afterward.

Your weekend plans to exercise, tidy up or just decompress from a stressful workweek may all be distorted by a boozy brunch. As Scritchfield reminds us, alcohol is a depressant. It makes you feel sluggish, sleepy and sad. Translation: You’ll be less likely to follow through with other plans. Even if your plans were just to bum around for two days (no judgement), you’ll just feel, well, icky.

Plus, if you decided to brunch on Sunday, your Monday will be — you know this — a headache. It’s much tougher to get anything done when you’re tired, dehydrated, experiencing nausea and hating life a little. Murray likens the Monday after a Sunday day-drinking event to going a night without quality sleep. Your focus, memory and concentration may be impaired, and these have deeper consequences when you’re off your couch and in a professional setting.

Bottom line here folks? Going out for brunch sucks. If you miss your eggs Benedict and/or flapjacks so desperately, why not make ’em at home?

A summer barbecue doesn’t seem complete without two culinary staples: potato salad and grilled corn. But before you round up the usual ingredients and fire up the grill, charitable cookbook author Lisa Skye shares a brilliant way to enjoy these seasonal favorites without preparing two separate dishes. And you don’t even need the grill at all.

With a recipe for Warm Jersey Corn Salad, Skye says you can enjoy the smoky chargrilled flavor of corn and the hearty bite of potatoes all in one flavorful plate — and everyone at the barbecue is sure to love it.

“This is a really great summer dish,” she says in the above video from #OWNSHOW. “You’re going to be everyone’s new best friend at your next barbecue.”

Recipe by Restaurateur/Chef Jimmy Bradley, The Red Cat, New York, NY

Ingredients

6 small Yukon gold potatoes, diced (about 5 cups diced)
6 ears fresh Jersey corn (or any sweet corn), shucked and kernels removed from the cob (about 5 cups)
1 pound thin asparagus, trimmed, cut crosswise into 1 1/2-inch pieces
5 ripe plum tomatoes, de-seeded and diced
1 tablespoon chopped thyme
1/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons extra virgin olive oil
Freshly ground black pepper
Salt

Directions

Fill a large pot halfway with cold water. Season with salt and bring to a boil. Add the potatoes and boil until tender to a knifepoint, about 5 minutes. Drain through a fine-mesh strainer set over another pot. Transfer the potatoes to a large mixing bowl and bring the water to a boil over high heat. Add the asparagus and boil until al dente, approximately 2 minutes. (“Put the tips in just a minute later [than the stems], so that that way, we don’t overcook the tips,” Skye says.) Drain and add to the bowl with the potatoes.

Heat a wide, deep-sided, heavy-bottomed sauté pan over medium-high heat. Add the corn in batches, to avoid crowding, and toast until lightly browned, about 3 minutes. As each batch is done, add it to the bowl with the potatoes and asparagus. Add the tomatoes, thyme, and oil, and season with salt and pepper. Toss, divide among individual plates, and serve warm.

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