An interview of Pam and Mim from Healthy Day Partners by Adjoa Kittoe
At Fresh Food Connect, we're lucky to work alongside people who turn a bit of backyard soil into something much bigger: food security, connection, and community. This month, we're spotlighting our Giving GNOME Pam, one of our incredible garden partners whose contributions. Especially through last year's work in San Diego, at Healthy Day Partners, CEO/Founder Mim Michelove have made a real difference for local families.
For Pam, the most rewarding part of donating isn't just the produce itself, it's knowing that families will have fresh food on their tables. Watching the work Mim does locally, and the number of people showing up to support it, has been a source of real hope. "It really helps balance what is shown in the media," she says. Along the way, she's also gotten to know some genuinely kind-hearted people she wouldn't have met otherwise.
About Healthy Day Partners
Healthy Day Partners is a San Diego based nonprofit dedicated to nourishing people and the planet through healthier, more just food systems. The organization got its start in 2011 creating educational gardens and farms. During the early days of the COVID-19 pandemic, founder Mim Michelove and a friend decided they had to do something to help families struggling to access fresh food. With supplies donated by local agricultural businesses, funding from SDG&E, and a small army of volunteers, they launched Grab & Grow Gardens, a program that hands out seedling kits, complete with bilingual growing instructions, to families visiting hunger relief sites throughout the county, and encouraged people to grow extra produce to donate to their Homegrown Hunger Relief program, donating fresh food to the local food pantry with the support of Fresh Food Connect's app.
Since then, the organization's work has grown well beyond those first programs. Through Homegrown Hunger Relief, home gardeners across Encinitas, Carlsbad, Solana Beach, and the Balboa Park area can donate their excess harvest at convenient drop off coolers, and track their contributions through the Fresh Food Connect app. Healthy Day Partners also runs the Healthy Communities Fruit Tree Program to plant fruit trees in accessible public locations within San Diego’s communities of concern, and Straight 2 the Plate, a mobile garden classroom that brings hands-on food education to residents with the least access to land and transportation.
The impact adds up quickly. In 2023 alone, Healthy Day Partners distributed over 10,000 thousand Grab & Grow Garden kits, and alongside its partner organizations, helped local gardeners donate more than 18,000 pounds of homegrown produce to over 9,000 individuals and families facing food insecurity. It's within this community, twice a month at Feeding San Diego's Produce Pantry and at Healthy Day’s Donation Stations every Sunday that gardeners like Pam MacCallum show up to make a difference.
A Garden That Started With a Ball of Weeds
Pam's love of gardening goes back to childhood. When she was about nine or ten, her father, an intermittent gardener himself, hadn't gotten around to planting one year, so Pam took matters into her own hands. She cleared the weeds and planted corn, tomatoes, and cucumbers using leftover seeds from the season before. It went well, aside from the running battle with her brothers, whose soccer ball had an uncanny habit of landing in her garden bed.
Her father's own gardens left a lasting impression: an elaborate tiered system for growing strawberries, and roses lining the front yard. "I think that's where my love of gardening started," Pam says.
As an adult, gardening stayed part of her life in a smaller way, a few herbs, a handful of tomato plants, until 2019, when she and her family moved to Carlsbad. Their new home backed up to a hillside, which they terraced and turned into large raised beds. For the first time, Pam finally had the space to grow on the scale she'd always wanted.
Her father passed away in 2020. "I think he would have really loved the huge garden upgrade that we put in," she reflects.
Sugar Snap Peas, Passion Fruit, and a Little Friendly Competition
Ask Pam what she loves growing most, and she'll tell you without hesitation: sugar snap peas, picked straight off the vine in late winter and early spring and eaten right there in the garden.
Her favorite produce to receive from someone else is passion fruit, gifted by a local friend. "I'm not willing to sacrifice the gardening real estate to grow my own vine, but I will happily take her excess crop off her hands," Pam laughs, a taste of the tropics for someone who grew up in the Midwest.
And when it comes to donating, Pam admits she has a competitive streak. Her favorite crops to give away are the heavy ones, tomatoes, cucumbers, zucchini, and squash, because every year, she's chasing her own record. Her goal for 2026: beat 462 pounds donated.Her goal for 2026: beat 462 pounds donated.
Why the Work Matters
Finding Healthy Day Partners
Pam knew from the start that her new garden would produce far more than her family could eat. She asked a friend working in homeless outreach if she knew of any organizations that could use the extra harvest, and that's how she found Healthy Day Partners.
"It was exactly what I was looking for," Pam says. Now she gets to experiment with every tomato variety imaginable without worrying about overwhelming her neighbors with giveaways. "I really love that I'm making a little bit of a difference and helping out some local families."
Gardener Pam's Advice
Pam is quick to point out that she's still learning, this is only her fourth year gardening at this scale, and new lessons keep coming. She credits social media (mixed in with the occasional cat video) for a steady stream of tips and tricks.
But her bigger message is about finding your own way to help, gardening or not:
"If gardening isn't your thing, there are so many other ways to help. Mim always has volunteers working with her, and this program wouldn't be happening without financial donations. Find something that you can do to make the world a little easier for someone else."
Would you like to connect with other gardeners? Do you have a story you'd like to share? Reach out to us anytime, join our Giving GNOME crew!
🌱 Find all of Fresh Food Connect's Resources for Gardeners here
Your garden can make a difference!
Donating your extra homegrown produce for hunger relief is a meaningful way to give back in your community. The free Fresh Food Connect mobile app connects you to a local hunger relief program, then manages and tracks your donations of homegrown produce throughout the season. 🍅Download the app to get started!🍅