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Our Impact
Microgrant Program
For years, GROW has expanded its community garden support by offering small, community- and impact-focused grants to update gardens.
Last year, and again this year, donors have helped us supercharge the Microgrant Program, increasing our allocations from $500 to $1000 per garden. This allowed us to allocate nearly $17,000 of funding for community gardens in 2024 over 19 gardens, the most we have done to date.
Many of these projects used GROW Microgrants to supplement other funding, such as Neighborhood Matching Grants or donations to complete larger projects. gardens and seasonal gardening tips to foster and connect the gardening community.
BUILD
We plant, nurture and protect organic community gardens and orchards, urban farms and green spaces leading to a healthy and diverse community neighbourhood.
Advocacy
GROW works with the City of Seattle, King County and other government and private entities to protect existing gardens and to find sites and mechanisms for creating additional ones. We also coach neighborhood groups through the process of starting a community garden, orchard or open space.
Stewardship
GROW is a land conservancy that can own property, which ensures community gardens can be maintained in perpetuity. We presently own or co-own seven of Seattle’s P-Patches. (The others are on public property, which risk being re-purposed for other uses as urban density increases.) GROW works on an ongoing basis to identify and facilitate the development of additional sites for community gardens, and always pursues possibilities for acquiring more properties.
FUND
We plant, nurture and protect organic community gardens and orchards, urban farms and green spaces leading to a healthy and diverse community neighbourhood.
Support for low-income gardeners
As part of our commitment to help enable everyone to garden and grow food as needed, GROW pays the plot fees for low-income gardeners in the Seattle P-Patch network who request assistance.
Tools and seeds
GROW purchases tools for shared use at gardens that need them, and also distributes seeds for gardeners’ use.
Financial assistance
We make small grants for the development of community gardens, and for assistance to organizations that increase the availability of healthy food for low-income people.
Liability insurance
GROW provides liability insurance for all Seattle P-Patches and some other community gardens and orchards, ensuring that gardeners have coverage in case of accident or injury.
Fiscal sponsorship services
We serve as the required fiscal sponsor for community gardens, orchards and parks, providing them a legal mechanism for raising and managing their funds as a non-profit entity. This arrangement enables individual sites to raise money for improvement projects.
EDUCATE
We train and educate members to become site leaders, who as a team, meet the needs of gardeners and landowners. P-Patch Post gives seasonal gardening tips and a whole lot more!
Leadership development
Community gardens function best when they have a team of site leaders who can work together to meet the needs of gardeners and landowners. We provide free training and consultation to help develop effective leadership teams.
The P-Patch Post
Twice a year, GROW issues a tabloid publication called the P-Patch Post, which provides seasonal gardening information, stories about inspirational gardeners and interesting community gardens, recipes, and much more. Past and present issues of the Post are available on this website.
HARVEST
Apart from growing organic produce for themselves and their families, we encourage gardeners to ‘grow a row for the hungry’ providing for local food banks and hot meal programs.
Food for the needy
GROW encourages gardeners at P-Patches and other sites to “grow a row for the hungry,” and supports systems for having produce from community gardens delivered to local food banks and programs providing meals to hungry people.
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