‘Grow & Give’ from your garden this summer

 By Amy Lentz, Colorado State University Extension - Boulder County

Are you growing a garden in your backyard or have a few containers of tomatoes on your patio? Do you know what you will do with any extra veggies you might grow this summer? Colorado State University Extension has a solution for your overabundant garden and can help you make the most out of your harvest – it’s called Grow & Give! Through the Grow & Give program, you can donate those extra zucchinis, tomatoes and beans to a local food pantry or a neighbor in need and make a positive impact on others.

Master Gardeners work in the ‘Food Pantry Garden’ at the Boulder County Fairgrounds Community Garden which grows solely for donations through the Grow & Give program. Photo: Amy Lentz

The Grow & Give program was created in the spring of 2020 as ‘a modern victory garden project’ to help Coloradans learn to grow food, share their harvest, and keep it in their local communities. Back then, you might remember people flocking to garden centers across the state to empty the shelves and buy up all the seed packets to start their new hobby of backyard gardening. But growing food isn’t necessarily a cake walk and CSU Extension saw the need to fill in the gaps. They saw a need to teach people how to garden from starting with seeds to harvesting and storage. In addition, Grow & Give collected information from local donations centers across the state and created an interactive map to help participants get their extra produce to donations centers.

In its pilot year, the goal of the program was to provide an outlet for learning about home food gardening while also making a difference in local communities during the global pandemic. In 2020, Grow & Give registered over 500 home and community gardens across the state and saw over 1,800 donations for a total of 47,000+ pounds of nutritious, fresh home-grown produce. But it didn’t stop as the pandemic has slowed…in fact, it’s grown! Last year, Grow & Give registered an additional 200 gardens and donations topped 55,000 pounds. This summer is no different as we continue to deal with food insecurity in our communities due to supply chain disruptions, inflation, and inequities in community services. Grow & Give continues to be there to help.

An example of one of my Grow & Give donations from 2021.
Photo: Amy Lentz

One of the unique aspects of the Grow & Give program is that it not only links you to produce donation sites, but it also teaches you how to grow fruits and vegetables specifically in Colorado’s unique climate through resources on its website. From the plains to the mountains, there are a vast number of articles, fact sheets and videos from raised bed gardening to how to grow tomatoes in buckets. You can learn about kohlrabi, peppers, cabbage, lettuce, strawberries, herbs and practically any other fruit or vegetable you can grow in Colorado. Not sure how to get started or deal with pests? This is also covered in the resources on the Grow & Give website – growandgivecolorado.org.

An example of the resources offered on the Grow & Give website - vegetables in containers! 

Are you ready to join the collective effort across the state to help with food insecurity at a hyper local level through the Grow & Give program? It’s easy! All you have to do is register your backyard garden or community garden plot…then when you have extra produce, report your donation through the website. You’ll get a bi-weekly emailed newsletter with gardening tips and it’s totally free to join. To learn more, contact your county’s CSU Extension office or visit growandgivecolorado.org.

Grow & Give: Community Garden Makes a Big Impact

 By Amy Lentz, CSU - Weld County Horticulture Agent

 

With the unique situation of the global pandemic that began back in March, many CSU Extension staff shifted gears to create the Grow & Give^TM program. This program took the idea of the victory garden and modernized it for 2020 by creating a comprehensive, statewide horticulture initiative focused on helping people grow a food garden and donate the produce locally to address food insecurity. The program registered almost 600 gardens across 37 counties in Colorado, with participation from individuals, Master Gardeners and community-run gardens. 

During the Grow & Give^TM program’s pilot year, there have been over 1600 reported donations across the state, totaling more than 40,000 pounds of produce! In addition to all of the amazing donations that were spurred by the program, the organizing team created several new resources for participants to help them with their ‘growing and giving’ questions and needs. To learn more about the Grow & Give^TM program, visit growandgivecolorado.org.  

One particular garden in my home county deserves some serious recognition for their past and present involvement in growing food for donations and their participation in this year's Grow & Give^TM program. The Treasure Island Demonstration Garden donated over 5,580 pounds of produce over the past few months, all donated locally! Although this wasn't their first year growing food for donation (they've been doing that for over 10 years), it was the first year they had to do it while dealing with restrictions due to the pandemic.

 

Treasure Island Demonstration Garden, conveniently located along the Poudre River Trail in Windsor, is visited by thousands of pedestrians and cyclists each year as they pass by the long garden area. The garden started 13 years ago as a side project for a small group of Weld County Colorado Master Gardeners. In their first year, they grew lots of pumpkins to get the garden up and running. Since then, the garden has grown to be an attractive and educational landmark of the town.

Today, Treasure Island is home to several garden sections including a very large vegetable garden, kitchen garden, dahlia garden, ornamental grass garden, memorial rose garden, a crevice garden and several mixed perennial gardens. 

The vegetable garden has really been thriving this year, with an abundance of crops such as cabbage, broccoli, zucchini, summer squash, onions, and tomatoes and peppers of all kinds! All of the fresh produce is donated to the Windsor Food Pantry for distribution throughout the area to those in need.

We are so proud of Windsor's volunteers at the Treasure Island Demonstration Garden and their continued efforts to help their local community! The Treasure Island Demonstration Garden is located at 1560 7th St. in Windsor, Colorado.

Pueblo Edible Landscapes Project

By Sherie Shaffer, Horticulture Agent, CSU Extension-Pueblo County

This summer, our Master Gardeners in Pueblo County didn’t have a lot of chances to volunteer in the community due to COVID-19. Luckily they were able to participate in a few COVID safe projects, one of them being a partnership with a local organization, The Pueblo Food Project, called the Edible Landscapes Project.

This project is an initiative to provide fresh produce to anyone who wants or needs it, and also to provide education to the community on growing food.

The project had three public sites, each with 2-3 volunteers working at them. Through the PFP, the volunteers were given a budget to buy plants and prepare their planters. Edible plants were added to each site, and signage was added to encourage passers by to take any produce that they wanted. Any excess produce is being donated to local food banks.

Later on in the year, signage was added that explained what was growing the plots and gave information on how to use it, nutritional value, and growing tips. Videos were also made that showed off the gardens and promoted them to the community.

Community members definitely took advantage of the fresh produce up for grabs. I live just down the street from the Mineral Palace Park site, where I walk almost daily, and have seen countless people picking produce and just marveling at the magnificent plants growing there.

We are at the end of the season, and we did have a freeze a couple of weeks ago, so the plants are starting to lose their luster a little bit, but that being said they do still look pretty good. Here are some photos of one of the sites that I took today, complete with a photobomb by my bloodhound, Layla. To see the gardens earlier in the year and get a personal virtual tour from our Master Gardeners, check out the videos linked above.

Feeding Colorado

Deana Wise, Broomfield County

Every year the bounty of the garden seems to change. Some years there are so many tomatoes harvested, everyone is making sauces and salsas. Other years, many gardeners have given up on home-grown tomatoes; forced to wander the Farmer’s Markets and grocery stores. The one vegetable that always seems to thrive is Zucchini.

 Some gardeners are quite masterful in using this veggie in creative ways in the kitchen. Others take them to offices, churches, and other places where they are left on tables while the gardener makes a speedy exit. It is worse than trying to get rid of Iris.

One solution is to donate excess fresh veggies to the food bank. Ok, where? There are many food banks, food pantries, and other non-profit soup kitchens in Colorado. A good place to start is Feeding Colorado. According to their website “Feeding Colorado's purpose is to coordinate and enhance food resources among the state's food banks and to support the mission of Feeding America. The food banks are 501(c) (3) non-profit organizations. They receive broad community support from individuals, corporations, local governments, faith communities and corporations.” (http://feedingcolorado.org/ ).

Feeding Colorado is comprised of five large food banks: Food Bank of the Rockies, Community Food Share, Food Bank for Larimer County, Weld Food Bank, and Care and Share Foodbank for Southern Colorado. Together, they send food out to 1500 other nonprofit agencies. To find a food bank in your area use this link http://www.feedingamerica.org/find-your-local-foodbank/ .  H UD also has a website for foodbanks.

http://portal.hud.gov/hudportal/HUD?src=/states/colorado/homeless/foodbanks#Broomfield

I know this is a busy time for everyone, please take time to donate any excess fresh produce you have. Someone somewhere would love to have fresh veggies, even if it is Zucchini.