By Yaza Sarieh
Yaza Sarieh is a contractor for Farm to School at Georgia Organics and a Childhood Health and Wellness intern at the Georgia Department of Public Health. To learn more about Georgia Organics, visit www.georgiaorganics.org and follow us on Instagram @GeorgiaOrganics, Twitter @GeorgiaOrganics, and at www.Facebook.com/GeorgiaOrganics.
Since March 2020, food assistance in Georgia has increased almost 300% to address COVID-19 related food insecurity. To confront these unprecedented challenges, organizations within the metro-Atlanta area have partnered with the Captain Planet Foundation to develop Project Giving Gardens that cultivate and distribute produce to meet the needs of thousands of Georgia families and children.
The Captain Planet Foundation (CPF) is a non-profit organization providing small grants to fund over 2,700 schools and partners with hands-on environmental education projects, such as gardens and other farm to school projects. One of the most invaluable programs CPF supports is the Project Learning Gardens, which provides schools with onsite learning laboratories that not only teach students about agriculture and the environment, but also supply communities with local foods.
When the Pandemic began in early 2020, CPF shifted Project Learning Gardens to Project Giving Gardens to alleviate food insecurity at large. With the help of the Food Well Alliance and the Atlanta Community Food Bank, CPF enlisted over 100 school gardens and 20 community gardens to utilize their space to cultivate, grow and distribute produce.
Belvedere Peace Community Garden in Decatur, Georgia participates in Project Giving Gardens. Managed by Partners in Action for Healthy Living (PAHL), the garden contributes over 50% of their plots to local food banks and donates produce to any individual in need. Despite the challenges surrounding seed procurement, volunteer engagement and increased demand for produce, the Belvedere Peace Community Garden took advantage of the resources, support systems and connections with CPF to safely and efficiently disperse fresh fruits and vegetables to more than 1,500 families.
Over the past year, Project Giving Gardens has harvested over 100,000 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables for families hit the hardest during the Pandemic – that’s almost 450,000 servings!
Additionally, Project Giving Gardens is partnering with Georgia Organics to grow okra in 23 metro-Atlanta school gardens in anticipation of this year’s October Farm to School Month, Livin’ la Vida Okra (bit.ly/livinlavidaokra).
Check our social media pages throughout the summer to find best practices for growing okra and to watch the gardens’ progress.
And join us on June 24 at 3:00 pm for a live okra planting demo! Click here for more registration details.
Project Giving Gardens has been such a success, that CPF is hoping to expand the initiative even more throughout the course of 2021. If you’re interested in learning more about the 2021 Project Giving Gardens, visit captainplanetfoundation.org/project-giving-gardens/.