By Michael Geddes | Garden Manager
Hello and Thank You,
We are truly overwhelmed by all the support we received on GlobalGiving this month and sincerely thank all of you for your efforts.
We are honored to have had so many people share our emails, Facebook posts, and engage with us.
My name is Mike Geddes, and I was recently made Garden Manager here at Jovial Concepts. As the newest member of the team, I am continually blown away by what we are able to do with the help of the community. With my background in community gardening, I have seen many a garden fail because of lack of community support and engagement. However, in my short time here I have been deeply encouraged by the amount of support we continually receive.
Our entire model is based around developing community. All our land is donated by the community. We are very fortunate to have garden hosts who are kind enough to allow us to grow food for needy populations on their property. Each weekend they allow us to turn their front lawns and backyards into outdoor classrooms where we specialize in hands-on learning. A lot of them come out and join in to support the volunteers, either with shovels or snacks.
Our plants come as a result of our partnership with the community. We share a greenhouse with Edgewater Elementary, where we currently have thousands of seedlings just waiting to be transplanted. Here we facilitate garden education classes for the youth, which will help us to nurture the next generation of urban gardeners and farmers.
Even all of our labor comes from within the community. People of all ages come out to join us in the gardens. From 10 year olds who need community service hours to earn their black belt, to stay-at-home moms itching to get their hands dirty, we have seen it all. While gathering such consistent support every weekend is a feat in itself, the true magic of the day happens as you watch these strangers forge lasting and impactful relationships all while dedicating their free time to help those less fortunate than themselves.
Most important, our food goes right back into the community to help those who need it the most. Our goal is to once again feed over 250 food insecure families in the region of Metro Denver.
We are excited to announce that we have expanded our gardens to include many families on our waitlist and have a goal to double our produce donation in 2015 to 5,000lbs!
While we believe this to be a more than feasible task, we can't possibly succeed without your help.
We are looking for a few more volunteers to lead activities each week at the Elementary School and as spring quickly approaches, we need more volunteers for the gardens.
If you are interested in volunteering or getting involved please email info@jovialconcepts.org or call 303-578-2569
Thank you for your support of Jovial Gardens!
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