The Grow Appalachia program at St. Vincent Mission has been blessed with lots of friends and partners as we work for food security in eastern Kentucky. Our newest friends are from Kitchen Gardeners International, a nonprofit community of 29,000 people from 100 countries who are growing their own food and helping others do the same. KGI is based in Scarborough Maine and this is the first year of their Sow It Forward grant program. We are the lucky recipients of a KGI Sow It Forward grant for our community garden project at the Big Sandy Community and Technical College where we are expanding the garden by adding three more raised beds.

We received a $300 cash grant from KGI, a $200 gift card to Gardeners Supply Co., $55 worth of non-hybrid, non-GMO seeds from the Ark Institute, a one year subscription to the KGI Garden Planner courtesy of GrowVeg.com and a copy of “The Year-Round Vegetable Gardener” by Niki Jabbour courtesy of Storey Publishing.

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There were only 50 grants available in this its inaugural year, so I am extremely grateful to Roger Doiron, the Founding Director of KGI and the folks who chose our application out of over 900 applicants. Even if our project hadn’t been picked, their website is full of all sorts of wonderful helps, hints and recipes. You really need to check it out. www.kgi.org

Thanks again Roger and KGI for your support. It just proves what I have been saying all along, Everybody Eats! But right now this body is going to read all about being a Year Long Gardener. I’ll let you know all about it cuz that’s what we do at Grow Appalachia and KGI.