GROW taking part in Giving Tuesday
The GROW program keeps people producing and buying local.
What comes after Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday? The answer is Giving Tuesday, a worldwide generosity movement that inspires people to extend their generosity to support their local communities and favorite nonprofit organizations.
The Boundary County community garden nonprofit, GROW!, Gardeners for Regional Organic Well-being, is asking for Boundary County’s support on this year’s Giving Tuesday, which is Nov. 29. Funds will be used to finance ongoing operating expenses, including the annual water bill, purchasing mulch for the orchard and soil for the raised beds, seasonal porta-potty rental and grounds upkeep.
Each year, GROW! donates hundreds of pounds of fresh organic produce to local food banks. GROW! board members and volunteers have provided all the labor for the past three years.
In recent years, we have not held our traditional fundraisers, including the popular Farm-To-Table Fundraising Dinner and spring raffle. Grants have provided funding for specific projects. We received a grant from the Innovia Foundation that allowed us to plant 40 fruit trees in the community garden, install a drip irrigation system for these trees, and provide weed control in the form of deep mulch and organic weed sprays. These fruit trees will allow us to expand our produce donations to include high quality organic fruit, as well as conduct orcharding “How To” classes in the garden.
A recent grant from the Idaho Community Foundation has allowed us to continue to support a Little Free Garden project in Boundary County, the first area in Idaho to participate in this national program that promotes gardening and gardening education. Much like Little Free Libraries, these small raised beds provide free produce to the local community. Boundary County now has approximately 40 Little Free Gardens distributed throughout the county. The public is encouraged to visit these gardens and sample the produce grown by volunteers and the help of local businesses. A map of these gardens can be found at https://www.littlefreegarden.com/map.
GROW’s mission is to enhance the availability of local, healthy food by distributing organic produce to local community organizations and by providing low-cost organic garden plots in the local community garden. All these activities would not be possible without the support of community organizations and volunteers. GROW! Volunteers and local Idaho Master Gardeners generously donated more than 1,000 hours of their time to these projects in 2022. For the past 13 years, Trinity Lutheran Church has provided the land for the GROW! community garden on their property. This generous arrangement allows GROW! to continue to fulfill its mission, which is to enhance the availability of local, healthy food by distributing organic produce to local community organizations and by providing low-cost organic garden plots in our community garden.
Tax-deductible donations to GROW!, a 501c3 nonprofit, can be made online at growboundarycounty.org or via mail (P.O. Box 1433, Bonners Ferry, ID 83805). A link can also be found on GROW’s Facebook page, Grow Boundary County. For more information, contact Gray Henderson, GROW! President, at gray@growboundarycounty.org, 520-561-0643 cell/text or Kate Painter, GROW! Board Member, kate@growboundarycounty.org, 509-432-5755 cell/text.