Kitchen Garden Project Inc Garden Raised Bounty

“Organization's process to review form 990 all members are emailed an electronic copy of the form prior to a board meeting. At the board meeting, the treasurer reviews the form with the members. A formal vote is taken whether to approve filing of the form.”

“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.”

“Governing documents disclosure explanation documents are made available upon request.”

“Raised bounty (grub) grows healthy food, people, and community. With roots in the land, we create opportunities for people to learn, lead, and thrive. We envision an equitable world where we are all nourished by healthy relationships, resilient community, and good food.”

“Garden-raised bounty (grub) is a nonprofit organization with a mission to grow healthy food, people, and community. With roots in the land, we create opportunities for people to lead, learn, and thrive. We envision an equitable world where we are all nourished by healthy relationships, resilient community, and good food. Grub provides direct services to and for the residents of thurston county and provides consultative, collaborative services to other organizations and institutions in communities throughout washington state, and on occasion, nationally, as well as to tribal nations located in the pacific northwest region. Grub maintains various programs including youth programs, a farm, community food solutions, pollination (also known as program replication), and tend, gather & grow (a program focuses on wild foods and medicine).”

“Youth programs in 2019-2020, grub continued a 20+ year legacy in adaptive, innovative youth empowerment programming centered around our 2-acre farm. Grub's youth programming is multifaceted and operates seasonally. It includes programming for high school students during the summer, for youth who have left high school before graduating to obtain their ged in the fall and spring, engaging children and youth through field trips and engaging pre-k children and their families on the farm through our families on the farm program. Grub also supports other organizations in adopting the grub youth program model. Programs carried on as usual in the summer of 2019. Due to covid-19, field trips, young child programming and our ged support services were placed on hold in the spring. In addition, we reduced the number of youth on the farm to make it possible to continue programming safely and continue to provide fresh produce to the community. We hope to begin offering these programs again in 2021. Since the summer of 2019, grub served a total of 43 youth experiencing barriers to success including low-incomes, minority identities and learning challenges. This included 24 youth in the summer of 2019, 15 in the fall of 2019 and 6 youth in a reduced spring 2020 program. During the summer of 2019, grub served 24 youth in our six-week 180-hour employment training program. Through a partnership with new market skills center, twenty-two youth received 1.0 and two received 0.5 elective credits in the practice of sustainable agriculture. They also earned up to $1,000 in educational stipends, learned how to cultivate produce, got to take home the food they grew, distributed produce to the community, and participated in team-based activities that were rooted in grub's mission of growing healthy food, people, and communities. Four of our youth played the important role of peer crew leader, which meant role modeling, mentoring, and leading new youth in activities throughout the summer. In the fall of 2019, grub served 15 youth in our grounded program. Through a partnership with gravity learning centers (gravity), grounded serves youth ages 16-21 who have left high school before graduating. Grounded youth worked together towards their ged while gaining job, leadership, and personal development training through grub's farm-based programming. If youth were close to meeting the requirements of graduation, they worked to gain high school credit to work towards their diploma. Grounded programming includes receiving one-on-one ged support, learning how to operate the grub farm, engaging in team building and public speaking workshops, leading field trips, and building backyard gardens for families with low incomes. Through our partnership with rescare, most youth earn minimum wage for their work in the program. Others earn a $1,000 stipend from grub. The program is staffed by two youth program managers and an on-site ged teacher from gravity. We had a bountiful year on the grub farm! The grub youth, along with interns and volunteers, grew 13,926 pounds of food. Of this, 7,587 pounds was donated to grub youth, their families, seniors and families with low incomes, the thurston county food bank, community events, volunteers, interns, cancer-affected families, and staff. Eight cancer-affected families received csa shares through a new partnership with the may day foundation. The rest was sold by the youth to help support grub programs through the youth-run market stand and csa shares. Beyond growing food, grub youth welcomed and hosted many farm visitors. In 2019, grub youth hosted 5 field trips, including 2 in the summer and 3 in the fall. Most field trips are typically in the spring. Spring 2020 field trips were canceled due to covid-19. In addition, grub hosted a dynamic "families on the farm" program. Through this rich 14-week program, 42 families with pre-k children grew roots on the grub farm; 21 families in the summer and 21 families in the fall. They share”

“Wild foods, and medicines grub's wild foods and medicines (wfm) program works to connect people with plants, place, and culture and creates opportunities to get outside, wake up the senses, and notice the world. This program partners with 18 different local tribal communities. In a collaborative effort with 12 educators from grub, public schools, tribal schools and informal education programs, wfm has developed a k-12 steam (science, technology, engineering, art, and math) curriculum called tend, gather and grow (tend). This curriculum connects youth with local plants and the cultural traditions that surround them. Thus far, the engaging lessons from this innovative and culturally responsive curriculum have been shared with more than 100 trained educators who have brought the lessons to more than 900 students. The curriculum is continuously added to and this year, the tend team completed a social-emotional module and is in the process of completing the cultural ecosystems module. The cultural ecosystems module lifts up native voices and teaches youth about tribal agricultural practices such as camas prairies, food forests and clam gardens. To accompany this module, grub is creating a demonstration garden and this year we removed invasive species from the site and planted nettles, ferns, wild greens and berries. This year, wfm provided five teacher training workshops on the tend curriculum, including a 2 day training on wild edible berries in quinault and a 2 day training on wild berries and cultural ecosystems at bastyr university. Two educator cohorts formed a community of practice at grub, including 18 educators in the tribal cohort and 12 educators in the na'ah illahee cohort. The two cohorts continued to meet virtually after the beginning of covid-19. In response to covid-19, wfm moved all community workshops to an online platform. Five workshops were offered, including: edible berries, wild greens, herbs for the nervous system, and grow your own herbal apothecary parts 1 and 2. In addition, wfm partnered with the herbal canoe journey herbalists to provide 86 herbal wellness kits to people who were sick within tribal communities. In response to the shift to at home learning, wfm adapted the edible berry module of the tend curriculum to create an at-home education kit. One hundred and fifty kits have been distributed thus far. In the voices of the participants: "tend creates community and relationships, teaches diversity in multiple cultural settings, builds confidence with a mindful spirit, reconnects you with the earth and seasons, and educates you on how to be a good steward of the land and of ourselves. I am honored to be a part of this program and always look forward to future trainings." -nakia demiero, northwest indian treatment center "my sense of community has expanded beyond people and now includes the plant community. I feel like i understand the traditional uses of plants more than ever, and i feel more equipped to share that information with both adults and students. I am more aware of incorporating land acknowledgments when introducing the community to land that is now owned by clt, and acknowledging the communities that have existed here before western settlement."-mary birchem, capitol land trust”

“Community food solutions this year we celebrated our 27th season of building gardens! Since 1993, we have built more than 3,000 gardens. Grub gardens benefit low-income individuals and families whose income is at or below 185% of the federal poverty level. Victory gardens are free for these thurston county families and empower them to grow fresh, healthy food for themselves. In 2019, we built gardens at 43 households, serving 105 individuals, including 48 children and 16 seniors. In response to covid-19, we increased our garden building efforts, building more than 50 in the spring of 2020 and continuing our building into the fall. All of the gardens building the spring of 2020 were built by small groups of 2 to 4 military veteran volunteers who contributed a total of more than 100 hours to the project. This victory farm was born out of a partnership with the thurston county food bank on the site of their new lacey distribution center at 7027 martin way east. The farm is veteran-led and veteran-designed and offers hands-on opportunities for veterans to develop their skills in sustainable small-scale urban agriculture and food production. The site began as a vacant lot behind some abandoned buildings, strewn with garbage and covered in blackberries. Now, through the dedication and hard work of veteran volunteers, it is a flourishing garden with produce, bees, flowers, herbs and fruit trees. In 2019 the victory farmers produced: 100 pounds of produce for the thurston county food bank; $500.00 of cut flowers for 4 local non-profit fundraising events; almost 5 gallons of honey for victory farm fundraising; and 500 pounds of fruit and vegetables for the local "food is free" table in the local tanglewilde community. In the summer and fall of 2019, the victory farm hosted free gardening workshops for the more than 50 veterans who participate at the farm and grub backyard garden recipients. In the spring of 2020 due to covid-19, workshops continued via zoom and victory farm in person programming was postponed. We hope to re-open the farm in 2021. In the voices of the participants: "i can't thank you enough for what this will be to me. It is more than community help, it is truly a start for me to grow food, help my neighbors with extras and give back. Big virtual hugs! Stay safe, stay well, and yes, we are all alone together, but we will get through this and this garden will be a huge part of that for me. I miss my family, my grandkids, etc., so much. I can't wait till this is over and i can bring them fresh peas!" spring 2020 garden recipient "by working next to each other we may break cycles of isolation, find new friends, and have much needed conversations of self discovery." 2019 victory farmer”