GIVING GARDENS
Helping people grow with food confidence
Growing strong gardens means growing strong communities.
Florida’s climate can make gardening a challenge. At Working Food, we work with gardeners and farmers to spread locally adapted seeds, create opportunities for hands-on learning, and cultivate a supportive grower network. Together, we ensure our local gardens and farms produce food, demonstrate sustainable practices, and lay the groundwork for a more connected, resilient local food system.
Our vision: A future where growers, and their gardens and farms, thrive.
Get involved.
Get involved.
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Our garden locations
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Garden location 1
123 Demo Street
New York, NY 12345
Garden location 2
123 Demo Street
New York, NY 12345
Florida’s hot days, heavy storms, and unpredictable seasons can make it tough to grow reliable crops.
At the same time, industrial agriculture has pulled us away from intimate knowledge and practices that used to nourish us, like saving and adapting seeds, building healthy soil, and expanding beneficial insect habitat. Instead, many growers are pushed toward costly, short-term fixes that don’t work in our climate, wearing out soil, wallets, and patience.
These challenges have led to farmers giving up at an unprecedented rate. Florida lost 1,000 small farmers in 5 years. When gardens and farms can’t thrive, we can’t grow the food that sustains our health and our culture. So at Working Food, we’re helping to bring full-circle growing practices, and their accompanying wisdom, back into reach.
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We bring growers of all levels of experience together to share tools, skills, and support through hands-on classes, a collaborative seed project, and a welcoming grower network.
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Free and low-cost hands-on classes
Garden demonstration days
Ongoing volunteer education and internships
Online learning opportunities
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Sharing climate-ready seeds through sales and donations
Supporting a community seed bank
Working with farmers and researchers to test and improve open-pollinated seed varieties that do well here
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Modeling what’s possible through abundant, beautiful gardens
Providing supplies and support to gardens, farms, and community growers
Creating opportunities for peer learning, mentorship, and building community
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X classes and workshops educate X new and existing growers on sustainable practices
X community and youth gardens throughout Gainesville get advice, plants, support, and seeds.
Local farmers and researchers steward nearly a 1,000 varieties of locally-adapted, climate resilient seeds, and distribute over 4,200 seed packets to local growers.
300+ volunteers help cultivate bountiful demonstration gardens, gaining thousands of hours of hands-on gardening experience and distributing their harvest to the community.
Simply put, more people are growing more food in Alachua County due to our educational resources and network of support.
How we make a difference
Growers who join Giving Gardens:
Gain confidence, skills, and deeper sense of self-efficacy and resilience
Build connections with other growers for collaboration, resource sharing, and mentorship
Deepen their ties to land and local wisdom
Preserve and share a wide variety of locally-adapted seeds that have cultural and historical significance
Help shape a future where fresh, local food is rooted in community
When our local gardens and farms thrive–producing food using sustainable methods, locally-adapted seeds, and local wisdom–our local food system becomes more stable. We can bounce back more easily from climate shifts and supply chain disruptions, with greater food sovereignty. The more people who grow nourishing food in their homes, schools, and neighborhoods, the more resilient our entire community becomes.