GROWING GARDENS OF BOULDER COUNTY INC
This organization has already been registered
Someone in your organization has already registered and setup an account. would you like to join their team?Profile owner : s***n@g************s.o*g
Mission Statement
Growing Gardens is a nonprofit organization whose mission is to enrich the lives of our community through sustainable urban agriculture. Over the last 20 years, we’ve brought gardening, nutrition education and fresh food donations to over 167,000 Boulder County residents. We offer a variety of programs to get people of all ages, backgrounds, income levels, and abilities involved in growing and cooking their own food. These educational opportunities are paired with seed, plant start, and produce donations, as well as gardening space, to impart greater food security and hunger relief in our community.
About This Cause
Almost 20 years ago, Growing Gardens saw a need to develop skills in our population to increase local food production and food security, to build personal capacity amongst our citizens, and create or strengthen community ties in the process. Food security is defined as having reliable access to a sufficient quantity of affordable, nutritious food. In Colorado, one in seven people struggle with hunger every day (HungerFreeColorado.org). Our solution to food insecurity is unique in that we are the only organization in the region to donate fresh food (as opposed to processed foods) as well as the education and tools to increase the community’s food growing capacity. We began by helping the City of Boulder to build more community gardens where people had access to resources to grow their own food. We developed programs for specific populations to learn food growing skills and experience the pleasure of growing food and the many things that food is associated with: good eating, a productive living, a healthy lifestyle, and engaged social interactions. Our activities are centered in the heart of Boulder at Long's Gardens in partnership with the landowners, the Long family, on 11 acres of their land that has been in agricultural use for over 100 years. Our Children's Peace Garden program serves over 9,000 children through field trips, summer camps, after-school and in-school programs through gardening and fresh food activities that fulfill the Colorado Model Content Standards in Science for grades PreK-5. Goals of the Children’s Peace Garden include: teaching children organic gardening skills, about the interdependency of species, and the importance of ecological sustainability through hands-on environmental and horticulture education activities. Children learn the importance of biodiversity and the important role of native pollinator species. They connect to the earth through organic gardening activities. The Community Gardens program serves over 1,395 people through 12 community gardens located throughout Boulder County. We manage 525 garden plots, and provide resources to gardeners including: access to tools, water, water conservation training and food growing resources. Cultiva Youth Project served it's 1,000th teen this past year, and each year provides approximately 200 youth 12-19 years of age (47% low-income) with leadership, job and agriculture skills training. Boulder Cultiva teens operate our CSA and urban farm, while teens from both the Longmont and Boulder farm gain agricultural skills and embark on community service and food donation projects. Community Classes: Growing Gardens offers educational workshops on sustainable agriculture topics such as beekeeping, organic gardening, garden design, organic pest management, composting, seeding, cooking, body care, and food preservation. We offer scholarships for low income adults. A special segment of our Community Classes focuses on Horticultural Therapy curriculum that serves over 100 seniors and people with disabilities through gardening, cooking and educational garden craft activities. The goals of the program are to increase motor, cognitive and psychological functions of our participants. The Growing Gardens Food Project serves over 17,500 low income individuals and families in Boulder County through donations of over 27,700 vegetable plant starts and 1200 seed packets each year. Participants are also offered sliding scale or free passes to participate in our Community Classes to learn how to successfully grow, harvest, cook and preserve their home grown food. This program donated 21,000 lbs of fresh produce to low income community members in 2018. Outcomes from the last complete fiscal year 2018 was a tremendously successful year for Growing Gardens. We served over 29,000 community members, 64% of whom were low income.