The Gardens Project of North Coast Opportunities seeks to relieve hunger and inadequate nutrition throughout Mendocino and Lake Counties by creating access to community-based food production and local, nutritious food. We work with local government and private landowners to lease underutilized land around low-income neighborhoods for the creation of new community gardens.
Nationally, 1 in 7 Americans struggles to find access to fresh, healthy affordable food. In Mendocino County, 1 in 6 residents suffer from food scarcity, and in Lake County 1 in 5 residents also do not have enough to eat. People in Lake and Mendocino Counties experience hunger at higher rates than the national average because rural areas like ours have high unemployment rates, low-wage jobs, and lack of transportation to reliable food sources.
We help people to E.A.T. by Empowering families to design and manage community gardens, creating Access to new land for food production, and Teaching all people in our community how to grow food.
Highlights of our work:
- Since our founding in 2007, The Gardens Project has established 55 successful community and school gardens.
- These gardens produce 28,470 pounds (more than 14 tons!) of produce, and provide vegetables to more than 3,000 people every year.
- Over 200 people attend our FREE workshops on food production and healthy eating in both Mendocino and Lake Counties each year.
- Since 2011, we’ve trained more than 75 gardeners to become positive leaders in their communities to ensure effective management and sustainability of community gardens.
