Saugonian leads volunteer team to grow food for the needy

SAUGUS – Saugus resident Daniel Donahue spends most of his time at the Lenox Back Bay Hotel in downtown Boston. As Vice President and Managing Director, Donahue helps oversee one of the top hotels in the area.But last week, Donahue spent the day digging in the dirt as he and a team from the Lenox pitched in at the Food Project in Lincoln, a nonprofit farm that grows food for low-income families, farmers markets and a slew of other community programs.?We had an affiliation with them in the past but we decided to bring the whole team in together to do it,” said Donahue. “We wanted to look for something that?s a little bit of team-building where we can help out. I?ve never worked on a farm or anything. We got to harvest about 800 pounds of carrots, potatoes, beets, radishes.”Donahue spent some of the day packing food in boxes to send to families followed by getting down and dirty with the farm?s late-summer harvest.?I thought, ?I don?t have the first clue about farming,?” said Donahue. “But they go out there with you. They have people that oversee the project showing you what to do. It certainly doesn?t take any special talent to pull something out of the ground, but it was a very interesting experience.”According to its website, the Food Project works with hundreds of teens and thousands of volunteers every year to farm 40 acres in Beverly, Boston, Lincoln and Lynn.Donahue said he was amazed at how much better fresh vegetables taste, especially when they?re right out of the ground.?More people should try it,” Donahue said. “It makes you appreciate what fresh is. It was unbelievable to take a carrot out of the ground, rub it off and eat it. It?s pretty awesome. Some of the guys started eating the radishes right out of the ground.”Hotel spokesperson Steve Pellegrino said the team from the Lenox helped “make a difference” for people who lack “healthy, affordable food in the Greater Boston area.”?The experience provided the hotel team with an outdoor team-building exercise, and a personal connection to our food system and issues of food justice,” said Pellegrino.While Donahue received a crash course in farming and harvesting, he said he also learned just how hard it is to operate a farm.?A farmer?s life is a hard way to live,” said Donahue. “They talked about how a whole section of their tomatoes were wiped out with an infestation so they didn?t have any tomatoes this year. That?s their livelihood. We just assume we go to the grocery store and produce is just there. The world is bigger than a grocery store. It takes a lot to get something from the ground to the table.”Donahue acknowledged he doesn?t have a green thumb, but hoped that maybe with some more practice next year, he?ll finally get those tomato plants to come in.Matt Tempesta can be reached at [email protected].