The Garden of Grace consists of 75 raised planting beds, covering over 9000 square feet of garden area. Through one full time paid director, and two interns we solicit volunteers to help with soil preparation, planting, watering/fertilizing, bed maintenance, and harvesting organic vegetables. Lasy year we had over 1000 individual volunteers, of which 40% were 18 years or younger, donate over 8,000 hours of labor. With their help, we grew and donated over 20,000 pounds of vegetables to Open Heart Kitchen and other local food pantires. In addition we have established and help manager gardens at 10 Livermore public schools including Livermore High School. We also teach sustainable organic gardening techniques to volunteers so they learn as they work with us. Our goal is to expand the garden onto more land recently leased in order to increase the production of an additional 10,000 pounds of vegetables and start an incubator garden to help interns from the agrigculture programs in our local colleges.
Fertile GroundWorks' mission is to use education to empower individuals to sustainably grow food for themselves and others, thus improving food security for all our neighbors, especially our neighbors in need. The organization's mantra is Teach, Grow, Give. Volunteer lessons at Fertile GroundWorks' main garden have allowed the organization to grow and give between 15,000 and 20,000 pounds of healthy vegetables to our food distribution partners: Open Heart Kitchen (OHK), and local food pantries every year since 2012. Fertile GroundWorks also champions locally grown produce by facilitating the creation of school, community and employee gardens. The produce grown in the eleven school gardens we support is given to the students and their parents. At the Title One school campuses, the school-based food pantries also receive some of the fresh vegetables the students harvest, especially during the summer months.
4743 East Ave