There's no mistaking Fred Conrad - the iconic gray and white camouflage wide-brimmed hat, horn rimmed glasses and sometimes muddy garden shoes are signature trademarks for the Atlanta Community Food Bank's Community Garden Coordinator, who oversees more than 175 community gardens in Metro Atlanta.

ACFB's garden guru grew up in a small, rural town in Central Maryland along with seven brothers and sisters and an enormous backyard garden. "We worked in the garden a lot growing up," reminisced Conrad. "We had peaches, apples, grapes and cherries, and we made our own jellies and preserves."

Decades later, Conrad still feels most at home in the garden. After moving to the South in 1995, he continued gardening as a career and a few years later joined the ACFB staff to develop the Community Garden Initiative.

Conrad's interest in helping others through gardening is part of a family tradition. "My dad did a lot of volunteering when I grew up," he said. Conrad's rural community consisted mostly of tenant farmers (farmers who work land owned by others). "Being in an agricultural community, there were lots of opportunities to help the growers."

Today Conrad continues the tradition by providing gardening expertise, volunteer help, tools, seeds, and additional support through the ACFB project.

Community gardening has become an effective way to bring neighbors together to provide fresh fruits and vegetables that may otherwise be inaccessible in low-income neighborhoods. It even helps connect the local community with the greater business community. Recently, Fred was able to obtain a new "walk behind" tractor (pictured at right) thanks to donations from the Schoenbaum Family Foundation and employees of the Ritz-Carlton Hotels, Atlanta and Buckhead.

If you would like to join Conrad this summer in a community gardening project or donate garden tools (including sheers, shovels, pruners, rakes, or garden hoes) click here.

You may also donate food from your private garden to help the hungry by participating in the Plant-A-Row-for-the-Hungry program. For a list of drop off sites, click here.