Grow Appalachia: Bringing gardens and fresh food to Appalachian families

[theHandpuppet]

This is a wonderful project from the Loyal Jones Appalachian Center of Berea College (Berea, Kentucky). For more information on how you can participate/contribute, please visit their website: http://www.berea.edu/grow-appalachia/

(from their website)
Grow Appalachia is planting the seeds for a sustainable future. Despite a rich agricultural history, family farming and gardening have become less popular and less profitable in Appalachia, limiting access to healthy, affordable food. Grow Appalachia seeks to solve pervasive food insecurity issues by restoring the relationship between the people and the land.

When food grows, communities and families grow too.

Through funding and technical assistance, Grow Appalachia has supported thousands of gardens through hundreds of community partnerships in five states; from backyard gardens to community gardens to school and summer camp gardens to greenhouses to mini-farms; producing more than 1,151,000 pounds of healthy, organic food for thousands of people in its first four years. The gardens are worked by nonprofits, farmers’ market entrepreneurs, the elderly, the Girl Scouts, inmates, the disabled, and others who believe a better food system equals better lives. Some participants garden to save money. Others garden to make money.

The program seeks both to educate communities and to learn from communities. It works to preserve the past, build hope for the future, and empower Appalachians to live healthy, productive lives. Grow Appalachia is proud to be a part of the Loyal Jones Appalachian Center of Berea College.