Jefferson County awarded $2,000 grant for gardens

Last year, Growing Together Iowa passed a big benchmark of growing more than 100,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables for Iowa's food pantry system. The Growing Together Iowa mini grant counties have been selected for 2020. Jefferson County Extension donated 295 lbs in 2019 and they hope to double this with this mini grant to expand the gardens at the Extension office.

The following counties will receive funding to do healthy food access projects with local food pantries led by one or more Master Gardeners: Benton, Black Hawk, Boone, Bremer, Buena Vista, Cherokee, Clayton, Crawford, Dallas, Des Moines, Dickinson, Dubuque, Floyd, Hardin, Jasper, Jefferson, Linn, Marshall, Monroe, Montgomery, Muscatine, Osceola, O'Brien, Polk, Poweshiek, Story, Tama, Webster, West Pottawattamie and Woodbury.

Each county's project is unique and each will include growing food for the purpose of donation, rescuing fruits and vegetables from farmers markets and/or fostering donation among networks of growers. Each county will also receive a collection of supportive nutrition education materials that will be offered to food pantries for distribution to their clients. The partnerships behind this project are truly inspiring. To find out how you can help with this project in Fairfield please reach out to Clint Mercer at 641-472-4166. Volunteers are needed to help plant, water, harvest and more.