🌱🥬Rooted in Resilience: Updates from Our Garden Partners 🧑‍🌾🍅

In the past few months, our team has had the privilege of visiting several of our garden partners to see their work firsthand. These visits come at a significant moment: due to SNAP-Ed funding cuts, we were unable to continue the third iteration of our Participatory Grantmaking (PGM) initiative. PGM was a process that increased project creativity, supported technology and storytelling skill-building, strengthened local partnerships, and offered meaningful peer learning opportunities. Losing that infrastructure was a real setback, but our partners have not stopped growing.

Here are updates from three of the community gardens we recently visited:

Green Duke has been busy! They recently installed new raised beds at their main garden site, which makes community engagement and volunteerism more accessible. Their plans for the season include growing at a larger scale in their high tunnel and cultivating Muscadine grapes. When we visited in March, the raised beds were already home to leafy greens like lettuce and spinach, with more plants ready to be transplanted into newly built beds. This summer, Green Duke is prioritizing youth engagement.

Oak Chapel continues to run a thriving youth gardening program that centers leadership, skill-building, and hands-on learning. Young participants learn the full arc of food production: planting a seed to harvesting food ready to eat. During our March visit, they were just getting started on summer crops including beets, broccoli, onions, and a variety of herbs.

Little Bud Thorbs' founder Linwood Thorbs is farming at a smaller scale this season, a shift that has opened the door for him to engage more broadly in other local community efforts. He has prepared land on his property for gardening, maintained distribution partnerships, and seen a notable increase in community interest, which is a testament to the visibility and impact of his garden space. Current crops include collards (harvest-ready at time of our visit!), tomatoes, peppers, okra, and squash. Linwood also hopes to add a chicken coop in the future. LBT continues to explore funding opportunities to sustain and expand their work.

These gardens are more than growing spaces. They are community anchors. We are grateful for the dedication of each of these partners and look forward to sharing more updates as the season continues. Stay tuned!