We Can Grow
Our Mission
To sustainably empower communities to build community through supporting and educating individuals, families and communities to grow, prepare, and preserve their own food.
Who We Are
We Can Grow is a program dedicated to building better families, neighborhoods, and communities through gardening. We have developed a low to no cost program that empowers people to grow, prepare, and preserve their own food and become stewards of their community. Through a series of four educational classes and a delivered, installed, and complete raised bed garden our clients will earn a chance like they have never experienced before. Food from gardens, often shared, develops a stronger bond between neighbors and friends. We believe that that same bond can be carried into communities through creating teachers to teach our program in their communities. We are young in our, development and welcome any ideas or suggestions you may have.Our Program in Brief
Belief in Education
We believe that any improvement in any area begins with education. The keystone to our success is our four part education series. After completion, We Can Grow clients are encouraged to take their newly learned knowledge and teach others in their community. To continue the growing tradition, clients that have completed our previous years course are invited back to help teach the next year's classes in their community.
Our Four Part Course
Basic Gardening
Working with the local Master Gardener program, We Can Grow has developed a basic gardening class that gives new and intermediate gardeners the tools to develop long lasting skills.
Working with the local Master Gardener program, We Can Grow has developed a basic gardening class that gives new and intermediate gardeners the tools to develop long lasting skills.
Cooking From the Garden
One of the most rewarding parts of investing the time and love into growing a garden is fruit of the labor. Often times people run into two different obstacles, lack of preparation know-how, or a lack of time. Our cooking class focuses on both of these problems. We demonstrate how to create healthy, quick, and easy meals using simple proteins and fresh produce from the garden. Our cooking class addresses and encourages experimentation with food from within and across all cultures. It doesn't stop there, we send each client home with a collection of recipes created from the inspiration of local professional chefs.
Food Preservation 101
Sometimes our gardens do better than we had anticipated leaving us with a surplus of produce. Great, healthy food doesn't have to be seasonal. There are ways to pack it away for a rainy day. Our food preservation class covers canning, drying, and freezing. This class is designed with food safety in mind. Each client leaves with a basic knowledge of food preservation, informational and testing materials Most importantly, they walk away with the ability to know how to remain safe preserving their harvest to use in the off season.
Sometimes our gardens do better than we had anticipated leaving us with a surplus of produce. Great, healthy food doesn't have to be seasonal. There are ways to pack it away for a rainy day. Our food preservation class covers canning, drying, and freezing. This class is designed with food safety in mind. Each client leaves with a basic knowledge of food preservation, informational and testing materials Most importantly, they walk away with the ability to know how to remain safe preserving their harvest to use in the off season.
Community and Environmental Stewardship
Part of getting the most out of a great garden in learning to work with Mother Nature and what she needs to help the garden remain successful. This class incorporates knowledge from the three previous classes and bring it around full circle. A healthy garden will produce year after year, but how do we keep a garden healthy? We focus on the environmental and societal benefits that gardens can provide and encourage our clients to take these lessons back to their neighborhoods and use them to create a better community. The ways in which these lessons can be used as community-building tools will be discussed and demonstrated in our fourth and final class.
Completion
After completing of our four part course, we hope our clients have learned a better understand of how to grow, prepare, and preserve healthy food. Most of all we hope they will teach others these valuable skills. Each client will receive a certificate of completion and will be invited back to participate in teaching classes the following year.
After completing of our four part course, we hope our clients have learned a better understand of how to grow, prepare, and preserve healthy food. Most of all we hope they will teach others these valuable skills. Each client will receive a certificate of completion and will be invited back to participate in teaching classes the following year.
Contact Information:
Phone 612-789-0078
