Vermont Community Garden Network

Our organization continued our partnerships with affordable housing sites in 2023; expanding the program to reach an estimated186 gardeners in 24 different housing communities in Vermont. This program is allowing us to provide resources and knowledge for individuals and families facing food insecurity. Through our onsite training and guidance folks are able to harvest produce where they live. We see further reward from this work in seeing neighbors strengthen their relationships with each other as well as their own self confidence.

Our Veducation Van has given us the ability to expand our programing in 2023 to create an additional focus on the health benefits to our work. We were able to travel to 45 sites statewide and engage with 1420 youth adults and seniors through our mobile classroom nutrition workshops. This curriculum includes cooking via our solar induction hotplate using our garden harvests for up to 20 students at a time. Youth learn where their food comes from.

In 2023 we continued to offer a robust curriculum of garden and nutrition education programs to a variety of demographics in Vermont. We have been able to reach seniors new Americans young families and more with hands on gardening programs as well as classroom style workshops. Whether it be a series on preserving your harvest for winter months or how to combat some of nature's toughest garden pests we have you covered! Our collective garden Seedsong has demonstrated increased efficiencies over traditional community gardening and we plan to expand to additional locations. Further details on this and all of our work can be found in our Annual Report found on our website.