SALT LAKE CITY — Wasatch Community Gardens is a local nonprofit that has been serving Salt Lake County since 1989. Their main mission is to empower people to grow and eat healthy, organic, local foods. Their values as are inclusion, collaboration, and stewardship, but Executive Director, Georgina Griffith-Yates says, it’s the joy in these shared plots of land that is really the key.
“You know joy is a big part of our mission and values here and it really is joyful to see the community get together, especially those where gardens are essential and integral to their culture or to their lifestyles. Being stewards of the land and having over six acres of protected land throughout the county is really meaningful to us.”
Anyone in the community can take advantage of these gardens. People can apply for scholarships to work the land for free, or if they have the means, they can contribute a small fee towards the garden's sustainability. The organization not only supplies plots for growing, but all the seeds, tools and materials needed to sew, plant, grow and reap.
Their new campus in the heart of Salt Lake City is both a garden and a learning center and it is nearly complete and ready for the public to enjoy.
“This is our campus and we've been looking for a permanent home for a long time,” says Yates. “The goal of this location is to create a teaching environment, to invite in the community and be an agricultural urban hub for families and community members.”
It is because of this great work in educating and feeding the community that Smith's Food & Drug along with Fox 13, is giving Wasatch Community Gardens this month’s Zero Hunger Hero Award.
“It's such an honor to receive this award from Smith's,” says Yates. “We have so many incredible partners throughout this community, and it means so much as each of those entities, including us, are able to be recognized and share what we're doing here so that others can come, take part in our mission, for people to be able to grow and eat local organic and healthy food.”
For more information visit wasatchgardens.org .
