What is the Garden Toolkit?
This purpose of this Toolkit is to help hunger relief organizations to start, maintain, and improve garden programs serving the needs of low income and food insecure communities in Central Texas. It is not a horticultural reference, but rather a theoretical framework and handbook for building out programs to support garden programs at food pantries and other hunger relief organizations.
Wells Branch Mud Community Garden
The Toolkit is divided into five main parts:
- Introduction & Goals of Gardening
- Styles of Garden Programs
- Implementation
- Construction, Dissemination, & Resources
- Garden Stories
Each section represents a distinct stage in the development of a garden program. The Introduction lays out a theoretical framework for what gardens are and how they can improve health. The second section, Styles of Garden Programs, explains how different approaches to organizing gardens reflect and contribute to the distinct drivers of community health outlined in the Introduction. In the Implementation section, the Toolkit assess organizational readiness to undertake a garden program as well as provides guidelines in how to organize your garden team. The fourth section provides resources to support the actual building and running of a garden. Along with resources for fundraising, educational content, and agriculture assistance. In the final section, “Garden Stories”, the Toolkit provides lessons from established gardening programs.
