Basin's Backyard Garden donates food to local pantries every week
Tracie Bettenhausen
16 August 2021
Zara Laber loaded up her "veggie taxi" as a temporary volunteer with the garden during her summer off. Laber's mother is Shauna Laber, Basin Electric senior property and right-of-way specialist.
For six years, Basin’s Backyard Garden volunteers rolled up their sleeves over their lunch hours and breaks and put in the manpower to plant, tend, harvest, and donate food for people who needed it.
From 2014-2019, garden volunteers donated about 3,000 pounds of fresh vegetables to local food pantries. In 2020, the garden took a break due to the COVID-19 global pandemic.
Coming back in 2021, the garden decided it enjoyed that work-from-home life. So this summer, the garden and its volunteers are doing their good work in a little different way. The garden isn’t grown on site at Basin Electric. During designated times, employees are bringing in their extra veggies to give and one volunteer hauls the donation to a local food pantry.
The goal is to get fresh, local produce to people who need it. Fresh local vegetables are not donated to food pantries very often, and the Hunger Free North Dakota program has done a great job over the years of making sure North Dakota summers are different.
This year’s first donation was 26 pounds of grocery store-bought goodness. The donation went to Community Action Program Reg. VII. Pictured: Bobbi Miller, emergency services coordinator, and Lori Hillestead, food pantry and Backpack for Kids coordinator.
So far in 2021, Basin Electric gardeners have donated 327 pound of fresh food to go to those who need it.
Basin Electric wants all interested and qualified candidates to apply for employment opportunities. If you are an applicant with a disability who is unable to use our online tools to search and apply for jobs, or who needs other assistance or accommodations, please contact us at 701-223-0441. Please indicate the specifics of the assistance needed or provide your contact information, and a Basin Electric Human Resources representative will contact you. Basin Electric is an Equal Employment Opportunity Employer regarding race, color, religion, sex, sexual orientation, gender identity, national origin, disability, and veterans status.
