Description
Start Date-End Date: 08/18/2022-08/18/2022
Land Manager Office: Grow Local Colorado
Land Manager Contact: Barbara Masoner
Funding Partner:
Programmatic Partner: Grow Local Colorado
Summary: Tend to and harvest a vegetable garden with Grow Local Colorado! For volunteers ages 8+.
Description: Where You'll Be:
Community Ministry is a social service organization, food/clothing pantry, and community resource that has been meeting the basic needs of individuals experiencing economic hardships and related problems in the Ruby Hill neighborhood since the 1960s. Grow Local Colorado and Community Ministry have been partnering since 2012 to ensure low-income residents in southwest Denver have access to healthy food choices. At the start of each growing season, Community Ministry provides a list of vegetables to Grow Local Colorado that are most popular with their clients. Last spring Community Ministry and Grow Local volunteers installed a sheet mulch garden in a weed patch behind the pantry. The garden produced 362 lbs of produce in its first year! As the sheet mulch breaks down and creates more nutrient-rich soil, we anticipate harvest numbers to climb.
What You'll Do:
Through our long-standing partnership with Grow Local Colorado, volunteers ages 8+ will spend the morning tending to and harvesting the veggie garden near Community Ministry in Denver's Ruby Hill neighborhood. Grow Local maintained the gardens throughout the summer and VOC is returning to help harvest the vegetables, which will be donated to local residents in need.
Anyone that attends a VOC volunteer opportunity in August, September, and October will be entered in a drawing for the chance to win a $300 SCHEELS Gift Card. The more opportunities you attend, the more entries you will earn. Good luck!
Why It Matters:
The vegetables that volunteers plant will be harvested throughout the growing season and donated to local food banks, homeless shelters, and families in need. This partnership with Grow Local Colorado creates a more connected community; demonstrates the beauty and efficacy of edible gardens; inspires residents to plant their own vegetable gardens; and contributes to a more sustainable food chain by reducing our carbon footprint.
About Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado (VOC)
Volunteers for Outdoor Colorado (VOC) is the state's oldest, largest, and leading outdoor stewardship nonprofit organization. Founded in 1984 to motivate and enable people to become active stewards of Colorado's natural resources, VOC has engaged nearly 128,000 people in more than 1,000 volunteer projects for a donated labor value of $26 million. Through award-winning youth and volunteer programs, leadership training, capacity-building programs, and collaborative efforts with nonprofits and land management agencies, VOC is an invaluable resource in Colorado, especially as our outdoor stewardship needs are approaching near-crisis levels. For more information, visit www.voc.org or call 303-715-1010.
Latitude/Longitude: 39.68531506817235, -105.0160136370418
Additional Information: Please review our packing list here: https://irp.cdn-website.com/453494dd/files/uploaded/Packing%20Checklist%20for%20Volunteers_Single%20Day.pdf
If you have questions specific to this project, please contact Elise Martinez at elise@voc.org or at (303) 301-4595.
Camping Available: No
Physical Difficulty: Easy
High Altitude Project: No
Desired Number of Volunteers: 10
Total Adult Volunteers Attended: 3
Total Youth Volunteers Attended: 1
Total Volunteer Days: 4
Total Unique Volunteers: 4
Total Volunteer Hours: 9
Staff Hours: 6
Stipend Hours: 0
Project Summary: On Thursday, August 18th, VOC volunteers met at Community Ministry to help Grow Local Colorado harvest plants for the 2022 harvest season. Despite a small group of 3 volunteers, plus 2 staff members (Barbara and Elise), we harvested all the produce that was ripe, weeded most of the garden, and pruned back all of the tomato plants that needing pruning.
Successes and Challenges: Successes:Our group finished harvesting within the 2-hour timeframe, with some extra time to spare where we spent time admiring our work and socializing.
Challenges: High no-show rate (40%) and no local volunteers present
Lessons Learned:
It will be a good idea to overfill these projects since Grow Locals tend to have a high rate of no shows. We also need to focus on more local outreach strategies since none of the participants were from the local community/neighborhood (Ruby Hill).
Special Notes:
Stewardship Education:
Key Concerns or Comments from Staff or Volunteers:
Description of Accidents/Incidents:
Description of Work Completed:
Details
| 8 and older |
