With all the new gardeners and volunteers, we are planning to grow more food than ever before. It is a true blessing,” she said.
Located at B Organic Farm, Chino Valley, the program’s first week was on Jan. 21, 2023. While it was literally freezing outside, the greenhouse was a balmy 50 degrees with the help of heaters, provided by my non-profit “Make 100 Healthy Foundation.” This allowed classes to start, regardless of the weather conditions.
The full attendance confirmed that many people want to learn to grow food, to be able to help those less fortunate to receive fresh food, even in the dead of winter. How wonderful! We have attracted many local gardening leaders to join our efforts because of the awareness that was generated from my past articles in QCBN.
Greg Eddolls of www.Foodscape.tips has taken the bull by the horns by volunteering to teach each Saturday. His main business, Tri City Computers, in partnership with Don Gordon’s DLG Recycling, has donated a refurbished 60” Flat Screen Interactive Touch Screen Educational TV and a greenhouse laptop that allows us to use multimedia and videos to reinforce the class subject manner. We are grateful for his generosity in time and resources.
Also, we are so blessed to have seasoned gardeners and passionate people, including Hoss Lambeth and Master Gardeners LeRoy Miller, Joe Rubio, Ann Smeltzer and others who have led the volunteer efforts during the week to allow for a beautiful and productive greenhouse setup. In fact, Hoss has focused on reinforcing the cinderblock raised beds with rebar and drip system redesign. This is hard work that is not for the faint of heart.
LeRoy Miller has brought his lifelong skills as a gardener to lead the ramp-up of the greenhouse to be ready to grow the Food Forest into a lush and productive place for fruits and vegetables to grow in.
Stephane Leon has been brilliant in bringing all the content together to inspire and lead the course for these aspiring gardeners; all of whom have received full scholarships to the eight-week course, thanks to our fundraising efforts and our main sponsors Lamb Cadillac and Pinnacle Bank.
The most exciting aspect of this program is the folks that have attended. We have families, couples and individuals that come each week ready to learn and apply their newfound skills, both at B Organic Farm and in their homes. Each student has committed to giving a minimum of 10 hours of volunteer time at B Organic Farm in return for the scholarship they received.
Ginny Buonaquista, the owner of B Organic Farm, is grateful for the help. “I have pretty much been on my own since COVID hit and it has limited our ability to provide free food to those in need. With all the new gardeners and volunteers, we are planning to grow more food than ever before. It is a true blessing,” she said.
How can you get involved? First, we are always seeking volunteers to help tend to the garden. If you have three or four hours a week to give, we have plenty of work for you to do. We have a volunteer scheduler on our site: prescottfoodforest.com or call us directly at 928-899-1341 for more Information.
What’s next? We are in the process of offering a Spring Garden Growing course, starting in April, and we are working on a summer boot camp program for children and families alike to teach them the skills to be able to grow healthy and nutrient dense fruits and vegetables.
This effort has been a testament to the tenacity and commitment of many local people to give our community the skills and insights on why growing food is so important. Thank you to all who have been a part of this incredible journey, which is just starting to scratch the surface of our full potential. I am humbled by the outpouring of support and encouragement.
Let’s keep growing! QCBN
By John Murphy
John Murphy, Make 100 Healthy/ Realtor.
