Denver Urban Gardens

DUG supports 200 community gardens and 20 food forests in seven Metro Denver counties serving 18,004 gardeners while impacting over 40,000 Coloradans. Our program ensures that the gardens are well built and responsive to their specific environment, whether located at schools, parks, neighborhoods, senior communities, or low-income housing. We maintain the physical infrastructure as well as the human infrastructure ensuring well-functioning communities through training, fiscal sponsorship and being the interface between gardeners and landowners. Estimated pounds of food grown 627,926. In 2022 the Food Forest Initiative launched with the goal of planting accessible food forest in small, underutilized areas in public spaces and community gardens.

DUG's food access programs (Grow a Garden) continue to expand and provided 1,500 primarily low-income participants with 16,000 seed packets, 11,800 seedlings and garden know-how to grow good food. DUG's network of gardeners provided approximately 62,500 lbs. of excess produce to the local community through partnerships with hunger relief organizations and Fresh Food Connect.

Education Programs: DUG offers garden, nutrition, and ecology-related workshops and school programming. DUG was awarded the multi-year Healthy Food for Denver's Kids grant and collaborated to offer online cooking classes and meals for students and families across Denver. The Master Composter Program continues to operate with virtual and in person training sessions and a variety of other workshops available to the community. In addition, DUG launched its online community network, giving gardeners the opportunity to ask questions, share ideas, and showcase their progress over the season.