Kitchen Garden Projectby Martin Lee The gardens consistently produce more food than the recipient families can eat and this is the first way the gardens strengthen communities - shared zucchini!" states Richard Doss, Director of the Kitchen Garden Project (KGP). The KGP is a nonprofit organization founded in 1993 by Doss. Its mission is to decrease the level of hunger and poverty within the Puget Sound region through the installation of complete vegetable gardens for low-income residents of Thurston, Mason, Pierce and King counties. The KGP believes that self-empowerment is critical to the health and welfare of a community. Through the installation of the gardens, the families are provided the opportunity to assist in taking control, to whatever degree possible, by supplying themselves with an essential need: food. The gardens generally consist of three raised beds. The 4 by 10 foot boxes are constructed and filled with fresh, weed-free, high-organic-content soil. As the garden is being constructed, seeds are distributed, pea trellises are built, tomato cages installed, and written and oral instructions/advice are given on planting, tending and watering. As the growing season progresses, the KGP follows up by distributing tomato, pepper, basil and herb seedlings. On average, each garden yields $500 worth of food per year (not including the fuel saved by not driving to the grocery store). In 1995, the KGP expanded into Pierce and King counties and gave away 100 gardens. Sixty-five of the 100 gardens followed the basic model of three raised beds at an individual family home. The remaining 35 gardens fit into three categories: 1) Eight were given to institutions that help disadvantaged people, like Head Start Preschools, group homes for the developmentally disabled, and shelters for youth-at-risk; 2) Six were set up at as a community garden space at a low-income housing project for the elderly; and 3) Twenty-one garden spaces were given away as community garden space in a low-income neighborhood. "I am proud to say that all of the gardens were, and are, producing phenomenal amounts of food and this year (1995) has been a 100% success," says Doss. While the KGP does receive funding from sources like Boeing and the Cheney Foundation, the need inevitably outweighs the funding. The 1995 goal of $60,000 to build 175 gardens was never met. Rather, 100 gardens were installed with $25,000 in cash raised plus an additional $10,000 worth of in-kind donations, discounts and volunteer labor from the community. However, at the end of the installation season in May, "we had the time, labor and ability to give away more gardens, but we lacked the cash to buy the necessary materials." If you would like more information on the Kitchen Garden Project or would like to make a contribution so that projects like the 61 raised bed community garden in Tacoma's Hilltop neighborhood can be realized, please contact the KGP at PO Box 7821, Olympia, WA 98507 or at 943-9188. Martin Lee is the Production Editor and Art Director for the Green Pages. He begins Leadership Thurston County, a community and leadership development program, this fall and is seeking contrtibutions toward his tuition. If you are interested in sponsoring him, please call 754-9449.
Back to Home page. |
