Vermont Community Garden Network

Our organization continued its work with affordable housing sites throughout the state. We provided a structured garden support and education program involving us working closely with residents and property managers to maximize the benefits of having a garden at home. We helped residents build an array of gardening skills from identifying pests to ideas on healthy snacks to make from their harvests. This work has proved that gardening in a community setting helps strengthen the bonds between neighbors and bring a new "favorite part of the day" to many busy adults.

In 2022 we transitioned our work with from being exclusively volunteer-led and funded through ShiftMeals to the Victory Garden Co-Op that offered a sliding scale and scholarships for gardeners. Graduates of the Community Teaching Garden assumed roles as garden mentors for the site. From early April through late October 19 garden members collectively maintained an extraordinarily productive market garden. We also partnered with the interval Center Burlington Area Community Gardens and the Agroecology and Livelihood Collaborative at UVM to facilitate our "Garden Like a Farmer" workshop series at this site. Over the course of 5 months we welcomed groups of 8-14 participants at monthly workshops to demonstrate and share advanced gardening tips techniques and tools.

This year we launched a Mobile Classroom by retrofitting a van that delivers garden and nutrition education workshops. New programming was developed for the Mobile Classroom to focus more directly on nutrition and culinary skills as they relate to health and seasonal vegetable cultivation. Upon completion of the retrofitting our van delivered workshops to schools housing sites senior centers and libraries at 31 locations across the state.