Kicking off the gardening season, this year, the Community Garden Coalition held our first in-person garden leaders meeting in three years last month! It was great to see everyone in person again! If you’re a leader of a neighborhood OR a school garden who missed out, we can’t offer you any of the tasty meal catered by Beet Box, BUT, we do have posted the packet of information shared at the meeting. Be sure to check it out on our Resources for Garden Leaders page if you want to know more about how to get resources or funding for your garden this year. We have also started a series of workshops ..read more

This year is the 40th anniversary of the Community Garden Coalition, and we are off to a great start due to some very successful year-end fundraising! We exceeded our goal of $6,000 through CoMoGives and received corporate gifts from two local Walmarts totalling $2,750 along with a $500 gift from UScellular. But the most surprising donation happened in early December when we were contacted by Jim Robertson, the chair of the Reality House Programs board of directors.  Reality House operated as a local, non-profit for 50 years offering a community-based alternative to incarceration. Unfortu ..read more

We are thrilled to report that the Coalition has received over $6,000 in donations this year through our CoMoGives campaign!!! We also received some other donations in December, and we’re so grateful to all our donors! These gifts mean A LOT to our small, all-volunteer organization! We are so happy to have community support and enthusiasm for our mission as we move into our 40th year as an organization! (That’s right, the CGC got its start in 1983!) Of course, if you meant to donate and missed the CoMoGives deadline, please know that you can donate anytime via our PayPal donations portal. We ..read more

We have reached the final few days of the CoMoGives local giving campaign, a truly inspired homegrown effort to support all kinds of nonprofit groups in Mid-Missouri. If you have the means to donate this year, we hope you’ll hop over to the CoMoGives site and give a gift to the Community Garden Coalition or another charity that’s close to your heart. We’re thrilled with the support we’ve seen so far for community gardening as we get ready for our fortieth year! (That’s right, the CGC has been around since 1983!) We’re 2/3 of the way to our goal of raising $6,000 through CoMoGives this year. As ..read more

Unite4Health garden bed rehabilitation makes room for more gardeners! As we look forward and prepare for another season of community gardens, we’re looking back at what was accomplished this year. Thanks to the efforts of our primary garden leader at Unite4Health garden, Cheryl Jensen, there will be additional garden spots available next spring! Before and after bed rehabilitation at Unite4Health garden in November, 2022 Cheryl’s tireless efforts, along with the help of Anne Jacobson, have really turned that garden into a little paradise for their gardeners! Cheryl had help from our favorite C ..read more

AmeriCorps volunteers helped us get two gardens back in shape! As I mentioned in a previous post, the City recently asked us to re-establish the Britt/Hall community garden by Fire Station 8. That’s a big request because normally that sort of garden work would be done by the gardeners themselves — who, in this case, weren’t an existing group yet. However, board members, Lindsey Smith and Cheryl Jensen were not deterred, and not only stepped up to organize the work but found a wonderful crew of volunteers from AmeriCorps to come in and get this garden ready for spring planting! It wasn’t the wa ..read more

Recently, the city asked the Community Garden Coalition to take over and revamp a community garden site they had established next to Fire Station 8 at 2301 E. Nifong. Normally, the CGC doesn’t start gardens from scratch, but rather helps interested groups establish or run gardens. Community gardens need a person or people willing to be garden leaders who serve as liaisons with us. In this case, the Britt/Hall garden had no established group or leader. Still, we said we’d try to take on the project. Board member Cheryl Jensen remembered that one of her past gardeners had moved to that area and ..read more

Wow! We are so grateful for all the support received on Giving Tuesday through CoMoGives!!! With over $1,800 received in the first day or our campaign, we’re so happy to have the support of our community as we get ready to celebrate our 40th anniversary in 2023! Thank you so much to those who’ve given! We will put your gifts to good use supporting Columbia’s community gardeners. If you haven’t given, yet, don’t worry — CoMoGives continues through December 31! Just visit our page at CoMoGives.com ..read more

It’s that time of year again when we ask you to consider making a donation to support the Community Garden Coalition via the CoMoGives local giving campaign. This was a great year for our group. We’ve expanded our services with more raised beds and equipment for disabled and elderly gardeners, while increasing the number of neighborhood gardens (check out Britt/Hall at Fire Station #8). But here’s the really big news — we’ll be celebrating our 40th anniversary in 2023! We may be one of the smallest all-volunteer, nonprofits in this area but we are mighty. What started in 1983 as a way to help ..read more

In 2022, the Community Garden Coalition was pleased to help gardens across the city with many improvements. We were able to build and fill raised beds for gardeners with disabilities, a picnic table and purchase top quality compost for various member gardens. We’ve also covered the cost of water during this year’s drought and helped gardens add native plants to their sites. As the year winds down, we are preparing to install a new, larger shed at our Claudell Garden property, and helping to get old garden beds rehabbed and renewed at the Unite4Health garden and at a new member garden at fire s ..read more