Bringing Gardening Education to the Classroom

April Updates from Project GROWS

Project GROWS partners with local schools to bring nutrition and gardening education to the classroom!

As part of our partnership with the Health Department and Thomas W. Dixon Education Center, our staff facilitated the first of a series of gardening lessons with five preschool classes working alongside the Genesis

alternative high school program students to seed tomatoes, onions, and kale. Our food access coordinator Megan Townley is also assisting with interactive after-school cooking classes for parents and their children at Dixon.

Big thanks to an Alternative Spring Break group of college students from the University of Missouri who came to volunteer on the farm with us for a whole week! With their help we mulched and composted beds, planted seeds, and transplanted seedlings from the greenhouse— including over 2,000 spinach plants! See them in action here.

Welcome to Clara Metzler, our new Farm Assistant! Born and raised in Rockingham County, Clara hails from Dayton and will be with us for the 2018 growing season. She graduated from Bridgewater College in December 2017 with a BA in Sociology and a concentration in Nutritional Science. What Clara loves most about Project GROWS is "the opportunity to get my hands dirty while doing good things with good people!"

We've moved into our new coworking space at the Staunton Innovation Hub! We couldn't be more be more thrilled to have our own office space and are thankful for the support of the Hub and our many new coworkers.
Read more about the Hub.

Mark your calendar for the Waynesboro Farmer's Market, starting May 12 and ending September 29, every Saturday from 9:00 a.m. until 1:00 p.m., rain or shine, at the Pavilion at Constitution Park in Waynesboro! Click here for updates.

This just in: We have 6 shares left in our CSA vegetable share!

Project GROWS is growing and the greenhouse is living up to its name! Sign up today for our 20-week vegetable share from June 5 through October 16 for just $25 a week. Optional add-ons of Polyface Farms protein and Tiny Fields Farm flowers are included this year! Email Laura@projectgrows.org for more information.

Learn more!

You're invited to join us for the United Way's Week of Caring!

Join us for a partial day of volunteering at Project GROWS in April! Email Laura@projectgrows.org to sign up or find out more about the Week of Caring.

The United Way still needs our help! Please join us in making a $25 contribution to United Way today as part of the “Bridge the Gap” fundraising campaign. After an unexpected 30% decrease in contributions this year, our local United Way is facing the difficult decision of cutting funding to their current partner agencies unless they are able to raise $50,000 by April. This would directly affect Project GROWS as well as many other incredible nonprofits providing essential services to our community. Read more about the fundraising campaign.

Check out this Instagram time lapse video of us transplanting beets last week!

Here's to the first month of spring,
The Project GROWS Team