GROW is a super supportive organization in Seattle that supports local community gardens, in particular the 90 P-Patch community gardens overseen by the City of Seattle. They function as a fiscal sponsor for gardens so they can fundraise to provide improvements to their gardens. They support by purchasing properties to keep them as gardens. They provide tools and leadership resources. Seattle would not be the haven it is for organic community gardening activities without the work they have been doing for many years. My own experience with GROW spans many years and even org name changes! Their work enabled the garden I was part of for 20 years to build a barn, composing toilet, compost bins, install new irrigation, put in 2 herb gardens, install a food bank garden, build an outdoor gathering space, our pavilion, create a children’s garden, revamp an old Master Gardeners garden, install an orchard and other fruiting patches, revamp the accessible beds in the garden, and rebuild a food bank closet and tool shed with an apiary on top. Just that one garden alone was able to do these projects with their fiscal sponsorship support.Amazing!
GROW deserves to be better know for its behind-the-scenes support of P-Patches. It not only bought half the land for our community garden, which will maintain it as a public garden in perpetuity, but it also has assisted our garden organization in practical ways, especially by being a fiscal sponsor for P-Patches, which enables us to write grants and secure funding for tools and garden improvements. I worked with Grow several times when I wrote grants for Hillman City P-Patch and found it a cooperative and generous partner.
GROW is a non-profit that supports community gardening in Seattle and King County in many ways, This organization is committed to a wide range of ways to support food security, build community within the garden members and between the garden and the surrounding neighborhood, enable and encourage organic methods and accessibility to garden plots for everyone including low income people. This organization is a source of support for gardens that are seeking to make improvements to infrastructure or simply replace tools by both being a fiscal agent to manage grant funds when they are awarded to a garden as well as giving out grants themselves. They are also a land trust that owns all or part of several gardens, keeping them in Open Space for gardening in perpetuity. GROW also sponsors leadership training for gardeners who want to help their garden to succeed, works closely with the City of Seattle Department of Neighborhoods P-Patch Program, and encourages site leaders to be open to opportunities to build community partnerships like becoming an Emergency Preparedness Hub or a participant in Adopt a Street. Our Hillman City P-Patch Garden has benefitted from GROW in many ways; years of support for training site leaders in best practices for encouraging community building and gardening techniques, actually purchasing the land in partnership with the City of Seattle to keep it in Open Space in perpetuity, buying us tools when needed, and funding low income gardeners. The attached picture shows the restoration of our Willow bed, which was accomplished with a grant that GROW acted as fiscal agent for. Not as easily quantified is the mentoring available for those who wish to lead a garden or serve on the Board. My personal experience as a garden leader and former GROW Board member is that these opportunities helped me to grow as a person and as a gardener, as well as teaching me how to facilitate projects within our garden, gave me the opportunity to make lasting friendships within the garden community and neighborhood, and the leadership experience and confidence to continue to pass the mentorship along, paying it forward. GROW is truly one of the Great Non-profits!
As a leader of a local community garden, I partner with the GROW team when I work to write, submit, and receive grants. GROW has served several times as our fiscal sponsor, which allowed us to receive and manage grant funds awarded by the city of Seattle. I depend on the GROW team for their hardworking support. I'll also admit that the GROW team has helped me to find and correct errors in my reporting! With the support of GROW, we've completed several significant projects. For example, the attached photo shows a set of plots built at our garden last spring that are designated for raising produce for local food banks. Our garden has a lot of grant writing experience, but GROW also offers invaluable help to less-experienced community garden volunteers who aren't as familiar with the grant requirements and processes. GROW is a dedicated group of volunteers who deliver valuable services to strengthen the social fabric of our community.
GROW in Seattle supports the city's community gardening program that consists of 89 gardens, called P-Patches. GROW is a land trust that holds 7 gardens as open space gardens in perpetuity. P-Patches are located across the city. The gardens build community by connecting Seattle residents of diverse cultures, economic levels and ages. In 2023, gardeners in the P-Patches donated more than 16 tons of fresh produce to local food banks and feeding programs.
GROW has helped many P-Patches, including Bradner Gardens-my P-Patch in southeast Seattle, by serving as a fiscal sponsor for handling funds to make garden improvements and purchase gardening tools and supplies. I love being a part of a P-Patch and this incredible community program.
Interbay P-Patch, one of the largest in the city of Seattle would not be there if it was not for GROW’s advocacy for community gardens and their support as a fiscal agent as we built the garden and the garden amenities. The Interbay P-Patch is one of the stellar patches in the city of Seattle thanks to GROW.