How to Start Nonprofit Community Gardens: Healthy Food for Families. OL 307

Start small, think simple. The purpose of the first workshop and launching the community garden is to give the participants a win—so that they will be encouraged to plant again the following year. Even if they plant only one garden bed 3 feet by 12 feet, they should be able to get positive, delicious, nutritious results.

In the first workshop community members learn about their family’s nutritional deficits, and are given ideas of what they could grow to offset this challenge. We encourage you to work with a nutritionist in your area to list plants rich in vitamin A, and fruits and vegetables that offer protein, fiber and micronutrients. She can help the community members pick the things from the list they would be interested in growing first.

Each class assignment is a concrete step in developing a program on family or community gardens. You will engage in participatory community workshops, baseline surveys, program planning, and planting real food gardens with your community members.

If the goal of this course is to get a nutritious garden planted, in OL 304, the second of this pair of courses, the goals are to learn how to care for the garden, how to increase family understanding of nutrition—including using delicious, nutrition packed recipes—and how to plan for next season’s garden.

We supply two levels of mentoring. Each week’s assignment will be introduced with by a clear, professional example of what we want you to achieve that week. We will also provide written comments, suggestions and encouragement for each one of your assignments individually. We want you to develop high quality outputs, and we also want you to understand the hows and whys.

The classes are designed to be fun and interactive: you will not only be working with your community, you will be collaborating with fellow students.

“This course inspired me to set up my own home garden where I could experiment before transferring the knowledge to the community. I have been able to test different brands of seeds, try sack gardens, and research methods of rain water harvesting.” Ivy D’Costa.

What Students Think About the Online Courses

	Week 1. Overview of Family Food and Nutrition. What is Food Security? What’s necessary for good nutrition? Research scientific evidence on community gardening and nutrition: What works? Organize a participatory vegetable garden nutrition workshop.
	Week 2. Develop Survey for Community Members on Food Security & Nutrition. Develop both a Workshop Lesson Plan and a Baseline Survey that will let us gain a better understanding of the community, food security and family nutrition.
	Week 3. Take a Food Security & Nutrition Baseline Survey with Community Members. Lead a Participatory Workshop on Family Nutrition and Vegetable Gardens. Share how planting a garden can increase the food a family receives. Demonstrate plants that provide essential vitamins & proteins, and how harvests can coincide with the months when food reserves are low. Encourage feedback. Where is community nutrition now? Are they interested in gardening?
	Week 4. Design a Program for Family Gardens & Community Gardening. Use the community feedback and the results of the baseline to plan a one-year nutrition and family garden project. Establish food security goals. Research best practices and solutions to special problems.
	Week 5. Develop Program Management Tools. Develop a 12-month project logframe, budget and schedule. These tools will communicate to donors and stakeholders exactly what you are trying to accomplish and can be used for effective management of the project
	Week 6. Design a Workshop on Community Gardening. Begin organizing the first garden planting workshop. Partner with experts. Find a location and assemble tools and supplies. Coordinate with nutrition and garden experts. Schedule the workshop with the community.
	Week 7. Prepare for the Workshop on Vegetable Gardens. How will you transfer the gardening information to the community? Turning your set of planting activities into a lesson plan and a take-home, how-to card.
	Week 8. Hands-on Workshop: Planting Vegetable Gardens and Community Gardens. Dig beds, plant seeds. Participants can have a successful first-year garden, even if small. Discuss the importance of organic matter in the soil. Dig garden beds, and provide and plant seed for nutritious, vitamin A rich, local vegetables.

Course Fees:
The 8-week course is $150.00.

When you are ready to enroll, click ‘Enroll Now’ at the bottom of the page.

You will be sent your Login username and password, and instructions for starting the course the Monday before the course begins. We look forward to meeting you.

The online course will be led by Tim Magee, CSD’s Executive Director, who has over 30 years experience in both working with nonprofits and leading training workshops. Mr. Magee is the author of A Field Guide to Community Based Adaptation published by Routledge/Earthscan. Mr. Magee has been an avid vegetable gardener for 40 years and has experience with community gardening—including co-founding the Tilth Urban Agricultural Center in Seattle Washington in 1978. Currently Mr. Magee actively manages a rooftop urban garden full of vegetables, fruit trees and Asian herbs and spices.
Visit the follow-up companion course: OL 304: Food Security & Nutrition 2

Please note: This course is offered in both a North American track and an International track. Simply let your instructor know which would be best for you.

If you have a question don’t hesitate to contact us at: Online.Learning@csd-i.org .

Space is limited.

Vegetable Gardens & Community Gardens: 8 weeks. Courses are offered every month. Enroll Now!