Whitefish garden closes in on grant competition
Following a concerted grassroots effort, the Whitefish Community Garden has won the online voting challenge for the Nature’s Path Gardens for Good grant contest by 196 votes and is now in the running to win a $25,000 grant.
The nonprofit organization is one of 275 that entered the contest. Nature’s Path will select two winners among the five applicants that received the most votes and will award each of the winners $25,000 in cash, garden design, technical assistance and fundraising.
The contest began April 22 and ended June 15. The Whitefish Community Garden, which finished with a total of 1,632 votes, will now compete with Vallejo People’s Garden in Vallejo, Calif. (1,436 votes), CAASTLC in St. Louis (1,425 votes), Trevecca Nazarene in Nashville (1,218 votes) and Damayan Garden Project in Tallahassee, Fla. (1,199 votes) for one of two grants.
The prize for each winner will include a $10,000 cash grant to plant an organic garden for its community, $5,000 for technical assistance and guidance from Organic Garden magazine for the garden’s design and construction and $10,000 for an organic breakfast fundraising event and garden dedication to be hosted by Nature’s Path.
Nature’s Path also will make a product donation of up to $100,000 to a local food bank in each of the winners’ communities. The North Valley Food Bank, which relies heavily on the Whitefish Community Garden, will receive the donation if the Whitefish Community Garden wins.
Whitefish Community Garden members say they would use the funds to build more community relief beds for the North Valley Food Bank, hook up to city water, build an irrigation system, offer more scholarships in the form of free garden plots to low income families and build wheelchair-accessible garden plots.
The Whitefish Community Garden did not enter the contest until May 28, having received news of it relatively late. However, its late entry proved to be anything but a hindrance. By June 5, due to extensive effort from garden members that included setting up tables at the local farmers market and passing out flyers, it had already climbed into first place with 620 votes.
“We felt confident the community would support us and vote for us,” says Jennie Henson, vice president of the garden’s board of directors. “But we had no idea the word would spread so fast or that we’d actually get to first place in such a short period of time.”
“We got the most votes by a large margin and are, by far, the smallest town in the group,” said Leah Manzari, the garden’s Master Gardener. “So we’re feeling pretty good about our chances.”
The two winners will be notified by June 30.