Over the past decade, the Gardens Project has been growing more than just delicious, local produce. We’ve built 47 community gardens to grow resiliency in our community.

Take it from Lorindra Frances, a member of the brand new Middletown Community Garden. “The whole fire thing this year was really scary since I lost everything in the first one. But to have a garden again makes my heart really really happy,” Frances remarked as she watered her raised bed, beautifully adorned by a variety of vegetables. “I left during the evacuations and those that didn’t, watered my area while I was gone. What better way than with the earth to unite a community with so much devastation.”

Community gardens have the power to transform grief, daily annoyances, and hardships intobeautiful friendship, resilient community, and organic produce. The garden represents the cycle of life, and with the new growth comes the recycling of last season’s nutrients. Two of our beloved community gardeners have passed on this year, as many more have celebrated the birth of new loved ones. Seasoned gardeners have passed on their knowledge, tools, and saved seeds to newer gardeners.

It’s been a year of growth and renewal. In 2017 alone, we’ve held 20 food production workshops on topics ranging from seed starting and transplanting to compost production to edible wild plants. Over 3,000 community gardeners are currently growing organic produce to feed their loved ones on land that was previously vacant, underused, or paved over. We’ve built 4 new community gardens, and laid the groundwork to complete a fifth by early next year. We celebrated a decade of empowering community, with family, gardeners, and friends, and of course garden-fresh cuisine. Along the way, we’ve enjoyed countless garden potlucks, marveled at the sweetness of fresh spring strawberries, and rallied as our communities were hit hard by this year’s North Bay Firestorm.

Invest in a more resilient food system in your community. Support the Gardens Project this #givingtuesday.

www.gardensproject.org/donate