From the Ground Up Farms, a nonprofit organization in Chico, CA, operates 10 community garden farms located on the sites of homeless shelters, residential treatment facilities, and women’s shelters. Their $4,855 grant allowed them to convert several gardens to raised beds to ensure soil safety, save water, increase yield, and minimize maintenance.
From The Ground Up Farms — 2016 Alumni Grantee from The FruitGuys on Vimeo.
“Our successes speak for themselves. More hungry people are eating more free healthy food. The list is very long of facilities waiting for our help installing their garden too. It proves what we’re doing is working!
Our yields and quality are greatly improved after installing the raised beds while our physical labor, after installation, was greatly reduced. That’s a happy combination. Every garden installation has brought 5 more requests. These are gardens being installed and maintained by the residents of the at-risk facilities. The fact that such big, long-term programs agree with our direction and want to do the same, assures us of long-term sustainability. These programs are always full and always transitioning to new people.
Check out a new project called Ground Support USA. New York producer chose 9 “Do Gooders” across the entire United States. From the Ground Up and our Kentfield Gardens was one. We are featured in his new documentary. It will be a tv series and we’re honored to be in their pilot episode, so keep an eye out for it when it airs!” ~ Jenny Lowrey, Executive Director
