Kitchen Garden Project Inc Garden Raised Bounty

“The form 990 is reviewed by the board members and key staff members together before the return is filed.”

“Staff and board members are required to sign the "conflict of interest policy" which is part of the organization's policy and procedures.”

“Compensation of the executive director is determined by the board of directors and is within the range of other groups.”

“Documents are made available upon request.”

“Garden-raised bounty (grub) inspires positive and community change by bringing people together around food and agriculture. We partner with youth and people with low incomes to create empowering individual and community food solutions. We offer tools and trainings to help build a just and sustainable food system.”

“During the second semester of 2014: our group led field trips for visiting prek - 12 classrooms, built gardens to support grub's kitchen garden project, and had an intergral role in preparing the farm for the coming growing season. They also put together a basic gardening skills video that allowed our youth to teach their gardening knowledge and to practice their public speaking skills. It is visible at: www.youtube.com/watch?v=hionizojqoy upon completion of the academic year program: 82% of youth increased earned credits 76% of youth decreased the amount of failed credits 75% of youth increased their gpa 89% of youth increased science gpa 45% decreased number of absences - 1 student improved his attendance so drastically that he was taken off the becca bill 2 students gained employment in teh community 2 youth spoke at 3 different city council meetings on behalf of grub (tumwater, lacey, olympia) the class planned and organized a presentation at capital high school all-staff meeting and an open house for prospective new students 3 youth assisted in the february youth institute and the whole class participated in a group activity to give institute participants a glimpse into our programming we recruited for incoming students at south sound high school in the north thurston public school district. We received applications from 13 students and selected 5 for the summer. We recruted for incoming students at capital high school in the olympia school district. We received 27 applications and selected 15 for the summer enty grub school. Summer 2014: the summer program was heavily involved in the delivery of the farm's goals through the bouquet csa, cultivator csa, on-site market stand, west olympia farmer's market, food bank donations, and the youth farm stand. Harvesting twice a week, assisting in the farm's ever long list of duties, learning about and making compost piles, making bouquets, running the on-site market stand and leading volunteers gave them a myriad of opportunities to gain valuable job, social, and life skills. Weekly team- building games surfaced leaders amongst the group and built camaraderie, and communication skill trainings supplemented these well. The summer culminated in the youth taking on planning and leading the harvest without supervision: a beautiful way to demonstrate, and challenge them to use their skills. We also took the group on field trips to the gardens and farms in the area who are aligned with various aspects of grub's mission. On these trips we were able to provide much needed labor on a bigger scale than normal and leave with both an immense amount of pride for our day's work and gratitude from our hosts. The additional bonus of these trips is that it exposes the youth to other "members" of the good food movement in the area. The benefit of spending longer days here is the opportunity to cook and eat together. Twice a week a rotating group of 3 youth and a volunteer cook lead (guest chef) prepared a meal for the entire crew from scratch; inccorporating most edibles from the farm throughout the summer. Four 2nd year peer crew leaders (pcl) were instumental in the success of the 2014 summer crew and also represented grub at the annual rooted in community (ric) conference that was held in albuqueque, new mexico this year. This gathering brought together 100+ youth, who represented youth food justice programs from throughout the country. One pcl was approached personally and asked to join ric's advisory council as a youth representative. 1st semester 2014 (2014-2015 school year: the crew continued to support the farm with an averae of 3 out of their 5 school days/week helping to make bouquets, harvest for the markets and csa, themselves, and helping the farm "go to sleep" for the season; deconstructing trelleises, taking out crops, planting cover crop, and deconstructing irrigation lines. A small contingency planned for and shot a promotional video to support capital high school in launching comp”

“Throughout thurston and mason counties (53 in thurston, 22 in mason), 6 of which were earthbox container gardens and 69 of which were 4'x8' raised bed gardens. Additionally, we built 5 institutional gardens in partnership with local schools and non-profits serving low-income adults and families, and 2 community gardens (at oakville school & the chehalis tribal community center). Through our new food investment garden (fig) pilot project, launched in the spring of 2014, we built 5 gardens on a sliding fee scale for mixed income community members in the greater olympia area. The kitchen garden project greatly benefits low-income individuals and families who experience food insecurity and who would otherwise have limited access to fresh produce. The gardens offer a sustainable method for thurston and mason county's low-income residents to provide for themselves, rather than solely relying on emergency food assistance programs. Before receiving their gardens, 75% of our gardeners received food stamps and 55% regularly visited the food bank. 54% of our gardeners reported, in the last year, that they or other adults in their household cut the size of their meals or skipped meals because there wasn't enough money for food. 82% couldn't afford to eat balanced meals. 87% reported that the food they bought just didn't last, and they didn't have money to get more. Each spring, our kitchen garden project build season culminates in may with a celebratory community-building event, the "day of the bed." this year's day of the bed featured 6 build teams sponsored by various service clubs, local businesses and community organizations. Each build team participated in fundraising prior to the event and helped to raise awareness about our work, as well as nearly 5,000 for the kitchen garden project. During the day of the bed, several volunteers came together to prepare breakfast snacks to fuel up our build teams so that they could be paired up with a trained lead builder and head out to greet and build gardens at the homes of our new kgp gardeners. After the build, the build teams, the gardeners and their families all reconvened back at grub to share a meal and celebrate the end of the kitchen garden project's 21st successful build season. This year, backyard kgp gardens served 75 households with 249 individuals in thurston and mason counties. The breakdown is as follows: 53 % households with children 31 % single-parent households 21 % noncaucasian housholds 25 % households with seniors 20 % of individuals served had special needs 29 % of individuals had chronic health issues after only having the garden for one growing season, gardener's lives and diets changed in the following ways: 90% reported that they skipped fewer meals, that their food stretched farther and/or that they had a greater sense of food security as a result of their garden 87% reported that they regularly use vegetables that they grew in their cooking 67% reported that they now eat 2-3 cups of fresh vegetables per day 88% reported that they regularly spent time outside (a 35% increase from before receiving their kgp garden) 1% reported that they felt confident in their ability to grow food (only 43% had these skills from past experience before receiving a kgp garden) 54% indicated that they get regular physical activity by working in their garden 5% even reported a reduction in food bank visits due to bountiful produce in 2014, grub offered a gardening & healthy eating workshop series featuring gardening, cooking & food preservation workshops. These workshops were offered free of charge to first and second year grub gardeners, and were open to the general public for a 5 fee. Our workshop series consisted of 21 workshops and served 95 individuals over the year, from march through november. Of the participants who returned a post- workshop survey, 65% reported an increase in their skills & knowledge of healthy behaviors. In the summer, we partnered with the olympia food co-op to”

“Communities, the effect of training adults who are the teachers, mentors and role-models for the youth in our communities could have a much larger ripple effect. 33 total participants from the following organizations and agencies: grays harbor public health & social services, hope garden project, olympic educational service district 114, city of olympia, nisqually tribe community garden, jefferson middle school, nisqually river foundation, wsu extension 4h program, ocean beach school district, national center for appropriate technologies, chehalis tribe, the evergreen state college, green mountain college, thurston conservation district, washington conservation corps, northwest leadership foundation, green angel gardens, sea school cooperative, biocharm farms, organic materials review institute, first lutheran church of south bend, and the tacoma nature center. After the successful pollination of the new olympia high school freedom farmers program in 2013, grub responded to other requests for help in starting grub-like programs. With the support of the pacific mountain workforce development council, grub was able to provide intensive technical assistance and coaching to 3 organizations in 2014. Grub engaged each site in program planning, staff skill-training, and sustainability planning. Mason county - hope garden project originally the hope garden project started in 2010 when mason general hospital donated land to be turned into a community garden. Hope worked with 20+ youth in 2014 on their small garden next to mason general hospital. Grub assisted hope with farm expansion design, sustainability planning, and program design work. Grays harbor public health & social services - cultivating roots project in the spring of 2014, grays harbor county public health and social services partnered with the housing authority of grays harbor to build the first cultivating roots garden at the low-income housing development, pacific court. Twelve youth participated in the program this last summer, developing leadership skills and civic engagement. Youth grew healthy food for their own families as well as the tenants of pacific court. Pacific county - le@f (learning environments at farms) efforts in long beach are in the fledgling stage as various interested partners try to establish a structure to support grub-like youth engagement. Conversations with the long beach school district, led by the sea school cooperative, look promising and we are hoping for the emergence of an alternative education model in the county that merges the best of grub's youth development philosophy with the unique agricultural and community assets of the peninsula. Our support of pacific county included general technical assistance as well as a community workshop to introduce the grub model and build the leadership of attendees.”

“Various other small programs and special projects related to mission of the organization.”