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A Resource Giveaway Day Unlike Any Other

It’s no secret that interest in gardening has skyrocketed during the pandemic. In these uncertain and stressful times, many of us are drawn to eating healthier food, exercising safely outdoors, and experiencing the mental health benefits gardening can offer.

That’s why our Food Access and Education team was thrilled to provide free gardening resources to 405 gardens at our first-ever no-contact, drive-thru Resource Giveaway Days on September 15 and 23.

These gardens—including 294 low-income household gardens, 85 school gardens, and 26 community and group gardens—are members of our Spread the Harvest project, which helps Central Texans grow their own healthy food by providing free compost, plants, seeds, and organic fertilizer every fall and spring.

Spread the Harvest Resource Giveaway Served:

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294

Low-income household gardens

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85

School Gardens

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26

Community and group gardens

In addition to the drive-thru format, there were a lot of other firsts this fall. We offered multiple days and locations to adhere to social distancing guidelines and minimize the potential spread of COVID-19.

Our generous hosts at Gus Garcia Recreation Center and El Buen Samaritano provided us with the ideal setup for distributing our gardening resources safely and quickly, including 7000 vegetable and herb transplants from Gabriel Valley Farms, 3000 one-cubic-foot bags of organic compost from Whittlesey, 100 pounds of Jobe’s Organics dry organic fertilizer, and thousands of seed packets from Sustainable Seed Company, Willhite Seed, and True Leaf Market.

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In another first, we required seed and plant orders ahead of time. Participants received an email, postcard, or text with instructions on the new format.

The pandemic has made the digital divide more glaring than ever, and we didn’t want anyone to miss out because of irregular internet access or being unfamiliar with online forms. To ensure digital and language access, we filled out forms over the phone when needed and worked with interpreters to gather orders from Arabic-, Burmese-, and Nepali-speaking participants.

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This event would not have been possible without our dedicated volunteers, including Travis County Master Gardeners and others who helped repackage and label bulk seeds during the summer. We learned a lot from these events and are excited to improve on them at our next giveaway in the spring!

See below for more photos from our Resource Giveaway Days.

September 15, 2020 - Gus Garcia Recreation Center

Photo Credit: Becca Montjoy

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September 23, 2020 - El Buen Samaritano

Photo Credit: Becca Montjoy

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