About
Wilmington College Grow Food Grow Hope works to increase the access of fresh food for families, promote the benefits of local food production and to raise awareness about self-sustainability in our daily food habits.
We believe that by supporting community and backyard gardening projects, we can create dynamic and self-reliant communities in Southwestern Ohio while providing people with the means they need to live more healthy, productive and meaningful lives.
To meet our goals, we maintain the 40-plot Friends of Hope Community Garden on the Wilmington College campus, provide the means and manpower for families to establish their own backyard garden plots, support school yard garden initiatives, host workshops and work with regional partners to establish new community garden sites.
Our Focus
Make Gardening Accessible: Gardening can be intimidating for beginners. We want our gardeners to have the skill to grow, the knowledge to teach and the confidence to share. By pairing apprentice gardeners with more experienced mentors, our programs are designed to give gardeners a foundational understanding of what it takes to garden. It’s our hope that by providing a basic set of skills to be successful, our gardeners will be able to develop the expertise to turn their garden projects into valuable community resources.
Train Experienced and Empowered Leaders: As a student supported organization, we work to cultivate the next generation of leaders in food sustainability every day. But we also want to encourage our friends and neighbors to use gardening as a way to become leaders in their communities. A successful garden gives worth to a place. We believe that our garden projects are more than just a way for people to feed themselves. They are a means for individuals, families and communities to show how productive their work can truly be.
Share the Knowledge: Gardening is about sharing and growth. We want our projects to create a community around gardening. Whether we are assisting with a schoolyard garden project, hosting a workshop or meeting at a community garden, we want our gardeners to share experiences and build new friendships. We believe that it’s only through our mutual support and cooperation that we can begin to change the culture around how we treat the food we eat and begin to create a truly healthy local food system.
Our Impact
12 Community Partners
100 Garden Plots Built
5,000 People Reached
20,000 lbs. of food donated
