Community Gardens Get Grant Boost for Doing Good

A glimpse at the Damayan Garden Project, which received $15,000 from Nature's Path Organic in 2010 to fund their Shakespeare Children’s Garden. Photo: Nature's Path Organic

Nearly any area can grow food and Nature’s Path Organic Foods wants to prove just that.

For the third year in a row, the organic cereal company is giving away three $15,000 grants to community organizations to build their own organic gardens. The public can vote on which organization deserves the grant the most on the Nature’s Path Facebook page. Two winners in the U.S. and one in Canada will be selected.

In certain areas of both countries, access to fresh, organic food is limited. These areas, known as “food deserts” rely on non-local produce and processed foods to get them by.

Learn More: 6 Inspiring Community Gardens

It’s something Michelle Obama speaks about extensively as part of her Let’s Move! initiative that focuses on raising healthier kids with better eating habits. Nature’s Path took that as inspiration in 2010, choosing to reward community organizations that grow and cultivate their own food.

“Two founding missions of our company are to support organic agriculture and to make organic food available to everyone. We are thrilled to be able to continue to help provide not only access to healthy food but the education needed to sustain it, along with increased organic land, for the third year in a row with Gardens for Good Grants,” says Arran Stephens, Nature’s Path’s Co-founder and Garden Keeper in a press release. “Through this program, we hope not only to provide funds for urban farming projects, but to also cultivate socially responsible community leaders who will bring people together to feed those in need.”

Past winners include GroW Gardens, a George Washington University volunteer program that provides food to a local charity that provides food and service to the homeless and SOLEFood, a Vancouver, Canada-based non-profit that sells its organically grown produce to restaurants and at farmer’s markets to support training and employment opportunities to Vancouver residents in need.

Keep Giving: 5 Top Green Charities