When Chip Paillex garden amassed excess produce in 2002 , he donated the extras . He soon began a nonprofit , harvesting crops for the Garden State 's less fortunate . By 2007 , he left his corporate job to dedicate himself full time to Newark 's Grow-a-Row . `` Our goal is to get everybody in the state -- whether it be a child or an adult -- to be able to eat healthy , '' Paillex said . It has since grown to 120 pounds of farmland and roughly 140,000 volunteers .
When Chip Paillex garden amassed excess produce in 2002 , he donated the extras . He soon began a nonprofit , harvesting crops for the Garden State 's less fortunate . By 2007 , he left his corporate job to dedicate himself full time to Newark 's Grow-a-Row . It has since grown to 120 pounds of farmland and roughly 140,000 volunteers .