Couple donates pile of pumpkins to food bank

Dwayne and Marlene Becker had a passel of pumpkins from their garden this fall.

So when those pumpkins needed homes they loaded them up and took them to the North Valley Food Bank. Last week before Halloween, the Beckers dropped off 45 pumpkins to be given away.

“I grow pumpkins every year,” Marlene said. “Usually I sell them at the Farmers Market, but it was just too rainy this year.”

The pumpkins were a welcome donation — set out for kids to pick out on their way out the door. Food Bank director SueAnn Grogan King said it’s “pretty much universal that pumpkins make us smile.”

The Beckers have been raising a garden and animals at their Monegan Road home for more than four decades.

Dwayne said they’ve been growing their own food and raising pigs, chickens, turkeys and cows before it was the popular thing to do.

“It was a way of life,” he said.

They’re mostly retired now. They help out their son who has taken over raising cattle and growing hay.

Marlene still loves to get outside and garden — out the back door of their home there’s two large gardens for fruits, vegetables and flowers. Inside, one corner of a room is devoted to growing African violets.

In the garden, Marlene grows about a half dozen different varieties of pumpkins along with squash and gourds. The heaviest pumpkin they donated weighed in at about 40 pounds. Usually they donate carrots and potatoes to the food bank. And there’s always squash to give away to friends. They can a lot of the bounty.

“Normally we have an abundance of potatoes and carrots, but we never have that many pumpkins,” Marlene said. “We share all the produce.”