Nov. 16, 2022
For immediate release
Media Contact: Allison Nagel
805-512-0901
allison@sustainablesolano.org
Interviews, photos and other materials available upon request
Quick facts:
- Sustainable Solano’s Solano Gardens is building a network of community and backyard gardens that can support each other with education, garden supplies and shared food.
- The program has a limited number of chickens, coops, vertical and container gardening and aquaponics kits to supply to community gardens. There are also chickens, coops and container garden kits for backyard gardeners who need assistance building their home gardens.
- Anyone interested in support for growing food at home can fill out an interest form here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZVKVRH2
Solano Gardens Seeks to Build Community Connection Through Garden Network
Sustainable Solano’s Solano Gardens program is offering garden resources to Solano County communities and aims to create a network of home gardeners to support one another.
Sustainable Solano intends to increase in-county food production, supporting communities to grow and process their own food and help eliminate food insecurity. Building community, health, wealth, and systems of care that are culturally responsive are at the heart of these efforts.
Solano Gardens, a partnership between Sustainable Solano and Solano Public Health, collaborates with community members and organizations to create edible gardens based on the principles of permaculture to serve as a source of fresh produce, inspiration and companionship for people in need across diverse communities. Each garden design is unique to the community it serves and cared for by community champions passionate about sustainable food.
Solano Gardens is offering a limited number of chickens, chicken coops, beehives, vertical or container farming, and aquaponics kits to community gardens, with the hope that some of these community gardens will eventually become “Hubs” around the county. Hubs would demonstrate different growing methods, host educational events and supplies giveaways, and have kitchen space to prepare some of what is growing for the community as part of education, sharing healthy food, and creating social enterprises.
Sustainable Solano will also cultivate a satellite network of home growers with gardens of any size. Solano Gardens will support this network through classes and circles of knowledge-sharing, so that these gardeners can lend support to each other. There will be a limited number of chickens, chicken coops, and vertical or container farming kits intended for satellite growers who need support establishing their home gardens. Sustainable Solano also welcomes donations to increase what can be offered.
Anyone who needs support in growing food at home can fill out an interest form here: https://www.surveymonkey.com/r/ZVKVRH2
About Solano Gardens
The Solano Gardens program has grown this year beyond its original scope of creating and supporting gardens that provide access to fresh produce in communities that have historically experienced limited access to healthy food. With the expansion of the program, the broader goal is to help Solano communities regain control over the growing, sharing and preparing of food. The program will do this in three ways. Solano Gardens will establish garden Hubs that can support education, distribution and preparation of food; community gardens that continue to get fresh produce to local residents; and smaller satellite gardens that can serve as a network of support for home gardeners interested in producing their own food. Culinary training classes for youth will impart skills and understanding of how to prepare fresh food at home and in larger amounts to share with others. And the program is also managing a farm feasibility study to look at the best approaches to continuing to support farming and food production here in Solano County. Together, these three aspects of Solano Gardens work toward that broader goal of food sovereignty for Solano communities.
About Sustainable Solano
Sustainable Solano is a countywide nonprofit organization that is dedicated to “Nurturing Initiatives for the Good of the Whole.” The organization, now in its second decade, brings together programs that support and sustain one another and the Solano County community. Initiatives include sustainable landscaping, local food, resilient neighborhoods, youth leadership, sustaining conversations and community gardens.
For more information, visit sustainablesolano.org
