Victory Garden Initiative
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Mission Statement
In one weekend in 2009, a group of friends and community changers came together to build as many gardens as they could in one day. They installed raised beds across Milwaukee, giving 39 families the ability to grow their own food and take charge of their health, environment and community. It was the first Great Milwaukee Victory Garden BLITZ. With that impetus, Victory Garden Initiative began. Since then, we have installed nearly 6,000 gardens, planted 27 orchards, trained 60 Food Leaders. VGI now cultivates a 1.5-acre urban farm, teaches hundreds of kids and brings communities together around healthy food. VGI builds communities that grow their own food, creating a community-led, socially just, ecologically sustainable, nutritious food system for all. We’re just getting started. “This is a grassroots movement. Move grass. Grow food!”
About This Cause
Victory Garden Initiative brings our mission to life through the following programs: The Great Milwaukee Victory Garden BLITZ: Rallying hundreds of volunteers, we install raised-bed gardens across the Milwaukee Area, filling them with local, organic, compost-based soil. Our most recent academic, IRB-approved studies show that, of 100 BLITZ gardeners surveyed from each of the BLITZ’s 15 ZIP codes, 100 percent of BLITZ gardeners continued growing food into the next year, 90 percent shared with friends and neighbors and 80 percent grew for at least three months. Victory Garden Urban Farm: At our acre-and-a-half urban space for growing food and developing community, we model sustainable, permaculture-based growing methods through our annual and perennial cropping; provide a community space for gatherings and education; harvest rainwater; offer a community compost system; host a 40-plot community garden; support several bee hives; and showcase innovative ecological agriculture projects that supply and support healthy food. We have cultivated the space since 2010 and recently purchased it to complete its transition from vacant lot to community asset. Neighbors and volunteers harvest fresh, wholesome produce, and our youth program participants enjoy and explore the space during and after the school day. Food Leader Certificate Program: We bring together budding community leaders to instill them with food system knowledge, gardening skills and community organizing and leadership techniques to change Milwaukee’s food system—starting within their own communities. Youth Education: Our youth programs are collaborations between VGI and community partners, in which our staff and volunteers engage with youth of all ages and their family members at our outdoor classroom at the Victory Garden Urban Farm. We improve gardening skills and promote knowledge of soil, nutrition, community, food systems and the natural environment while teaching children of all ages valuable skills. Our volunteer core is made of over 600 individuals who show up for BLITZes, garden work days, committee meetings, and everything in between, lending hands, hearts and special sets of skills to contribute to this movement’s success.