Today we’d like to introduce you to Hillary Jensen.
Hi Hillary, we’d love for you to start by introducing yourself.
Our Giving Garden was started in 2016 by our Founder Judy Byler and a group of friends who decided to use a local church’s land to grow free, fresh produce for their neighbors in need. They took an empty lot with poor soil and spent countless hours building garden beds, improving the soil and caring for the garden after they got off work and on the weekends.
The first year, the garden grew 500 pounds of vegetables and they were hooked. Since then, so much growth has happened, thanks to our volunteers, board members and staff who pour themselves into making the garden a family-friendly, community space. In 2018, we were given the chance to purchase the land from the church, and though we didn’t have the money, we did not want to lose this incredible place. Through some serious grassroots fundraising and community support, we were able to put a down payment on the land and haven’t looked back since! We continued to grow, adding part-time staff for camps and classes. We continued work in almost a 100% volunteer capacity and were amazed by the positive feedback from the community. The garden became a space of peace and cooperative efforts; parents would come to volunteer in the garden or care for the animals, while all the kids played together on the property. When COVID hit in 2020, we knew we had to pivot—-we had a mortgage to pay now, and folks needed access to fresh food now more than ever! We started our free pantry and free CSA box program and began boxing up family-sized portions of our harvest to drop off to food pantries. As supply chain issues began, pantry staff told us that in many cases, we were the only source of fresh produce they were able to give. We began to seriously focus on food production and started increasing our growing space. To offset costs, we began to expand our education programs, and opened up larger camp programs, offered more classes and held community outreach events, all held outside to accommodate for the pandemic. What was a scary leap of faith turned out to be a great opportunity for us to offer outdoor education and provide some much-needed space for kids to safely play during a time when they were experiencing many social restrictions in other areas of life. The past 2 years have been a time of incredible growth, and we have grown to have 2 full-time staff members, and several part-time staff to support all of our programs that support our mission to interrupt poverty, through 3 main tenants: fresh food access, education, and greenspace access.
In addition to our weekly free CSA program in partnership with local food pantries, we hold a monthly mobile food bank and pet clinic in partnership with YNBF Rescue and have a free pantry, free fridge and free pet pantry. We will be building a new and larger free pantry structure funded by the Atlanta Brave Foundation and No Kid Hungry this Spring to accommodate for the need in the community. For children and youth in the community, our focus is fostering environmental stewardship, while also giving kids a safe space to learn, grow and develop social skills. We have options for all ages, from summer camps, afterschool programming to a forest preschool we host.
I’m sure you wouldn’t say it’s been obstacle free, but so far would you say the journey have been a fairly smooth road?
Like most people and small businesses, the past few years have certainly challenged us to think outside the box, and pivot, pivot, pivot! We rely heavily on donations, sponsorships and grants to fund our operation costs, as we are committed to making our food accessible to all, and keeping our education programs low cost. We are a working farm AND education center, so every day brings new challenges, and every person in our organization wears many hats. On any given day, we may be solving an animal emergency, launching a new program and hustling to harvest, package and deliver our Free CSA boxes. We have experienced an incredible amount of growth, and we are grateful for every day. But on the other side of that coin, is that incredible growth also equals incredible expenses. In the past 2 years, our operation costs have quadrupled, our food production has doubled, and we are serving more kids through our programming than ever. All in all, there are many challenges, but it is always an exciting day!
Thanks – so what else should our readers know about Our Giving Garden?
We take pride in being a space that acts as a safe place, a place of learning for all ages and space that offers experiences that often aren’t available in our area.
For instance, we offer on-site field trips for local schools. We have Title 1 schools just down the street from us, and most of the students who visit have no idea what a tomato plant looks like or have never seen a chicken or goat in person, and they absolutely light up when they see them. Those are the types of experiences that we hope will be the starting point for kids in the community to take interest in and see opportunities for getting to know their food system and inspire a love for agriculture and environmental stewardship. Our camp kids and kids that attend the forest school (Robin’s Nest Nature school), and our interns get those same experiences, and they go home and tell their parents and friends about it. So you get to see that inspiration and love foster in many different ages, and between generations. It’s pretty amazing.
I think something that sets us apart, is that we are a community organization, led by the community. What happens in our space is a team effort—- our volunteers, our staff, and interns all found this space and became emotionally invested in seeing it succeed, for our own happiness, for our kids, and for our neighbors who need some help. Anyone who steps foot in the garden leaves knowing that it is a special place.
For our food programming:
In addition to our weekly free CSA program in partnership with local food pantries, we hold a monthly mobile food bank and pet clinic in partnership with YNBF Rescue and have a free pantry, free fridge and free pet pantry. We will be building a new and larger free pantry structure funded by the Atlanta Brave Foundation and No Kid Hungry this Spring to accommodate for the need in the community. We also offer a program called Backyard Bounty, which entails people hiring us to manage a garden plot in their backyard. They keep a weekly share of the harvest, and we take the rest to donate. A big part of our farm is our interns from WWOOF, the World Wide Organization of Organic Farmers. We host interns from all over the country and world, who come to learn about our sustainable farming practices and our food donation program. We have met some incredible people through this organization and they assist with our daily farm operations.
Education programming:
For children and youth in the community our focus is fostering environmental stewardship, while also giving kids a safe space to learn, grow and develop social skills. We have options for all ages, from summer camps, afterschool programming to a forest preschool we host. We also offer free outreach events to the community a few times a year, which are made possible by sponsorships from local businesses. Last year, we launched our first Animal Outreach Day to showcase animal careers and volunteer opportunities, with demos from Yellow River Ranch and Georgia Reptile Society. We had over 300 people volunteer, all free admission.
You can find out more about our upcoming events and volunteer opportunities at ourgivinggarden.org
Can you tell us more about what you were like growing up?
I’ve always loved being outside and had an affinity for all kinds of living things. I had a wonderful childhood and grew up on the same street as my grandparents, aunts and uncles. I spent a lot of time in my younger years with my grandparents, who had their own large garden, and were very self-sufficient. I was a quiet kid, and read a lot of books, and was pretty creative. After college, I ventured into organic farming and fell in love right away. The more experience I had with small farms, the more I appreciated the incredible amount of time and labor that went into every piece of harvest. It made me appreciate food more, in general, and lead to my passion of food access. Everyone has the right to fresh food.
Pricing:
- Camps – $225 – $250
Contact Info:
- Website: ourgivinggarden.org
- Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/ourgivinggarden/
- Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/OurGivingGarden
- Other: https://www.gagives.org/story/Ujkl6g
Image Credits
Celina DeSantis Photography (personal photo)