FOOD GARDENS

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EMPOWER

We implement and grow urban regenerative, organic food gardens & farms with residents of affordable and permanent supportive housing & homeless shelters, to function as a place for accessing food, healing, skill training, work development and community building in Los Angeles.

OUR PROGRAMS

 

Resident Food Gardens

Activities conducted by GHG not only include building, implementing, growing and supporting all components of the garden, but also involve careful training for the on-site residents, community building through group exercises, and ongoing learning opportunities facilitated by GHG volunteers. Bi-monthly science-based training is provided to all program participants during our maintenance visits. Yearly community work days also include a “garden-to-table” segment, meaning a demonstration is given on how to prepare a plant-based meal and then shared with the community.

 

Garden Vegetable Donations

From 2021-22-23, each garden and the Virginia Avenue Farm became a point of service and connection through which we donated 100,000lbs of fresh vegetables, fruits and herbs. These donations increase access to seasonal fresh food, while enhancing the resident’s connection to each other and to what is growing in their own gardens. 

 

Work Development Program

We offer a paid work internship with unhoused and recently unhoused folks. As the gardens are planted and the residents are provided with educational workshops related to the gardening process, interns are learning to properly tend to the gardens. Likewise, they too receive proper care -  GHG staff and volunteers support them in advocating for improved social services and personal housing opportunities. To date, 7 out of our 9 unhoused paid internship graduates are now permanently housed. This is an 87% success rate that we hope will reach 100 in the coming years.

OUR IMPACT

2021-23

18,500 Seedlings Planted

Seedlings grown by GrowGood or donated are tended to in our nursery until they are hardened and sturdy enough to plant

100,000 lbs of Donated Produce

Gleaned farmer’s market and private properties, vegetables and fruit, donated and distributed.

15 Resident Food Gardens & 1 Farm

Just over 2800 square feet of active growing space in 9 distinct affordable housing properties and 2 homeless shelter, producing year-round harvest.

Accessible to over 3150 Individuals

Supporting financially disadvantaged persons with 24/7 access to organic food gardens.

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ABOUT US

GHG was founded in 2019 by Carolyn Day, a Master Gardener who witnessed the powerful impact of edible gardens while volunteering at a local homeless shelter.  Having experienced homelessness as a youth, she remained especially sensitive to the reality that  food insecurity can often be a direct result of  transitional living. She began to take action towards developing a local solution, and launched a pilot project by planting four garden beds at The People Concern’s Samoshel Shelter.

Help us grow organic, regenerative gardens that empower residents and communities of small means.

"Because folks at Growing Hope Gardens cared, a child took his first step in organic garden soil instead of Skid Row. "

— Carolyn Day

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