In 2024, our gardeners grew 28,044 LBS of organic food, and 11,697 of that fresh produce was shared with other families in our local community.

What started in Wayne County in 2020, but has since expanded to Cabell and Lincoln counties as well, our program offers organic gardening education, support, supplies, and community building opportunities to individuals, families, aspiring market farmers, and community gardens. We partner with local organizations such as our libraries and churches to host our meetings and our farmers market and share resources for our participants.  

We want to help our families grow as much of their own food as possible! 

 - Attend in-person gardening meetings once per month

- Report harvest numbers monthly 

- Practice organic methods 

- Participate in online Facebook group

- Share blog posts when needed 

This organic gardening program works in partnership with the West Virginia University Extension Family Nutrition Program (WVU FNP), which is comprised of numerous nutrition, food and physical activity projects designed to help limited resource families, youths, and adults improve their health. WVU FNP targets risk factors associated with obesity, cardiovascular disease, diabetes, hypertension and other chronic diseases. 

Our organic gardening program is sponsored and in partnership with Grow Appalachia in Berea, Kentucky.  For the past 13 years, Grow Appalachia has been addressing food insecurity throughout central Appalachia through home and community garden initiatives, foodways, farming, and hunger relief programming. They partner with local organizations like ours to create healthy, resilient, and economically viable food systems. 

We love partnering with our local libraries, churches, and other organizations because they offer so much to our program. Through our partnership with them, participants have access to books, food preservation equipment, seeds, commercial kitchen access, and more. 

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Technical Gardening Manual by Grow Appalachia 

Intro to Organic Gardening by Appalachia Sustainable Development 

We encourage participants to grow large gardens and share or even sell any extra produce  This helps make growing food more affordable and creates entrepreneurial opportunity for growers and increases access to homegrown, fresh food for our local communities.