Statement of Intent
Mission
The Treasure Valley Community Garden Cooperative is a cooperative of community gardens and community members committed to growing nutrient dense delicious food, beautiful spaces, and a more resilient, vibrant, and connected community.
Like the Cooperative Gardens Commission, our primary purpose is to cultivate food—as much as possible, like the Victory Gardens in the 1940s. In doing so we are creating a sustainable sense of security, while cultivating community across traditional divides. Working alongside our local community, using regenerative sustainable agriculture practices, working wisely with the resources we have, pooling energy to make what we have go farther!
We respect cultural and traditional forms of agriculture and seek to learn about the history of various practices where ever possible. While doing so, we work to empower, encourage, and equip those in our community who are already working and leverage our networks and resources as available.
Vision
Through sharing resources, know-how and volunteering within our growing local community gardens, we are working to address food insecurity that pre-dates the coronavirus, and we acknowledge social inequities that the virus has laid bare. We understand that we are able to co-create a sustainable healthy vibrant community by being inclusive and mutually respectful of all community members.
Who We Are
A growing group of people that are passionate about cultivating food, gardens and community.
What we do
We are co-creating this in the community on an irregular basis, and we could use help to continue creating the following:
Connecting Community Gardens with seasonally complementary meetings to share resources and knowledge as well as stories and each others company.
Sharing information about existing Community Gardens with a Google map, creating common volunteer hours, and a calendar of events (started).
Creating a group of volunteers to help on bigger projects and attend events open to the public.
We can serve as a point of contact for individuals or groups interested in joining or starting a community garden. But we can also work with other resource groups in the valley to further our collective goals.
Actively support the creation of new Community Gardens, with priority for under-served communities and underused spaces. Working to preserve land that it’s possible to cultivate food on.
As of 2023 additional ideas are afoot. If you’d like to get involved with this organization we have a very positive and forward-thinking framework in place, a number of BIG HEARTED individuals involved, and a fresh sense of resolve.
COVID
TVCGCoop was formed in-part as a response to COVID 19, which has had evident impacts to our food system nationally. This has brought a sense of urgency and seriousness back to gardening, as a means to provide a sense of lasting collective security.
Access to healthy food is a universal right, as is access to clean air, water and safe shelter.
In line with the Cooperative Gardens Commission we’re implementing safe gardening practices and creating shared informational resources. The following are free to download, print and display. If you laminate them, or use a sheet protector you can reuse them on garden working days.
Inspired by the Cultivating Success Webinars provided in March 2020 in the Pacific NW region.
Designed by ACreativeAsset.com.