Dear friends and family, 

By now you have all heard me go on about GRuB and my work with our Victory Garden Project and GRuB School. I feel passionately about this organization, and I am grateful to work with inspiring people who are commited to a society where everyone is at the table. I hope you will take a moment to read on about the Victory Garden Project and help me reach my $500 goal, which will fund one new garden this spring. 

Each year the Victory Garden Project (formerly the Kitchen Garden Project) builds backyard vegetable gardens with 50-70 individuals and families in Thurston County, Washington. These new gardeners are linked by the shared experience of economic injustice and food insecurity, and they apply to the project because they want to support family and community reslience by growing food. Most of the gardens are built by veterans from our Victory Farmers cohort and youth from our GRuB school cohort. Throughout the year we host community meals, gardening workshops, and our Cultivating Community Leaders trainings, which all provide opportunities for skill building/sharing, peer-to-peer mentorship, and community engagement. This year, we are also piloting a paid leadership team consisting of 4 gardeners and 4 veterans who will be helping us shape the project into the future. I am consistantly impressed with GRuB's efforts to create pathways for marginalized groups to be leaders in social change and not just the objects of our work. 

While we recognize that building individual vegetable gardens is not a solution to systemic food insecurity, we also know that the simple act of building a garden and growing food empowers individuals and transforms our relationships to others. Growing and sharing food reminds me that we all have something to offer ourselves, our families and our communities. I regularly hear from gardeners that they spend more time with family since building their garden, or from youth that they took food they grew on our farm home to a family member who may not be able to put nutritious food on the table. Gardens create these opportunities for community resilience as GRuB works in partnership with other organizations at the county and state level address systemic barriers to food security.

Through the Victory Garden Project, I work toward a future where "everyone is nourished by healthy, sustainably grown food, everyone has a sense of belonging, and everyone is an honored and inspired contributor to our community." At a time when we are encouraged towards divisiveness out of fear and scarcity, GRuB's programs offer people an alternative model of community development marked by cultural humility, grassroots leadership and the abundance of cooperation. I am grateful for the gardeners, veterans, and youth who are working toward this future with us. I hope you will support us in 2017!

Thank you, 

Arielle

GRuB is reaching out to our wonderful community to help us meet our annual fundraising goal of $50,000 by December 31st. Please read our story and help us grow the GRuB hive this season. Bee kind, bee supportive and bee generous!  Your donations to GRuB are tax deductible!