Shared Garden Program
growing a healthy, community-based food system for all
Valley Verde works with families throughout the Santa Clara Valley, partnering with communities of color, to grow culturally-preferred, organic vegetables. Since 2012 we have cultivated spaces for 600+ home gardens. This includes helping to create gardens in affordable housing communities, local schools, community centers, and senior housing residences. In order to form a just and participatory food system rooted in food sovereignty practices, Valley Verde is dedicated to increasing self-sufficiency, neighborhood health and community resilience through our Share Garden program as we work to build generational knowledge and skills around growing food.
Our Shared Garden program provides the training and resources needed for a healthy harvest. Program participants receive raised-beds, soil, seedlings as well as monthly workshops and home visits from the Shared Garden team to support their garden. The program runs every year, beginning in September and ending in June.
10+ Program locations
Classes are delivered at San Jose and Gilroy community centers, community buildings and schools.
100+ families
impacted/year
100+ new families are enrolled every year, and that number continues to grow.
500
Home Gardens
Since the formation of the Home Garden program in 2008, Valley Verde has created over 500 home gardens
Classes in
3 Languages
We work with Spanish, Vietnamese, Mandarin, Farsi, Tagalog speaking communities.
Deep Roots
After completing year one of the Shared Garden program, Valley Verde invites participants to continue to grow both technical skills and knowledge as well as deepen their community roots through the Deep Roots Program. The Deep Roots cohort will continue to receive vegetable seedlings and other garden resources, while Valley Verde supplements the workshops with guest speakers and community events designed to grow program participants’ garden network.