Participant Resources

Master Gardeners and MG Interns can donate their fresh garden produce to local food pantries to help support the Hunger Free ND Garden Project.

Master Gardeners will earn 1 volunteer hour for every 5 pounds of produce they donate to a food pantry. In addition, you can count the amount of time that it takes to drive to and from the food pantry. Please weigh your produce at the participating food pantry and keep track of the weight on your reporting forms; there is no need to send signed or approved forms from the food bank. We trust your generousity! 

For those of you tending a dedicated community garden for such a project, you have the choice of either counting all your hours caring for the garden plus transporting the produce to the food pantry OR you can use the 5 lbs per hour rule.

Donation Locations

Sometimes the opportunity to grow and monitor a recent or possible NDSU variety in your home garden can spring up. This work can be added into your Master Gardener volunteer or MG Intern Administrative Service hours.

Each trial that you monitor is equal to two hours of certified volunteer or intern admin service time (one hour of service per cultivar) with a maximum of 8 trials allowed annually (16 hours). You are welcome to participate in spring and fall trials but a total of 16 hours is the maximum to be counted toward EMG volunteer time.

We made a group decision at EMG Conference regarding reporting for our time spent together, as follows:

Continuing Ed: 4 hours for three speakers on Thursday, 1 hour if you went on the impromptu tour with Laura, and additional time Friday based tours you took of the conservatory/grounds, whether on your own or with an IPG guide

Volunteer: 3.5 hours on Friday morning, plus drive time from home to IPG and back

If you volunteer in a community outside of your home town, you may count drive time to and from the location toward your annual reporting. You may add drive time as a separate entry on the form.

For drive time related to food bank donation, please see that section above.

Drive time cannot be added to Continuing Education forms, only to Volunteerism forms.

Scan and email to: Shannon.Ueker@ndsu.edu

Fax to: ATTN: Shannon Ueker, 701.231.8474

USPS mail to: NDSU Extension Master Gardener, Dept 7670, PO Box 6050, Fargo, ND 58108

The NDSU Extension Master Gardener Program reports volunteerism from the previous calendar year to the National Master Gardener Program annually. We tally volunteer hours worked, educational experiences created and attended, and food/produce donations. 

Our NDSU EMG year ends on October 31 annually, allowing time for data collection by year end.

Sending in forms that meet the minimum requirements mentioned above, postlmarked by November 15, guarantees re-certification, qualifies you to be an award nominee, and helps our program make the best impact nationally.