Community Gardens & Youth Garden Project

Community Gardens promote food security by increasing access to nutritious food.

La Grande Community Garden

The La Grande Community Garden provides a space for individuals to grow a portion of their own food. Many gardeners are low income and live in apartments. Having a community garden plot, and growing their own food, increases access to nutritious, fresh fruits and vegetables. Many individuals also donate a portion of the produce they grow to the food bank and the garden is incorporated into educational activities at Head Start, the Ag Extension, and Oregon Rural Action Blue Mountain Chapter gardening workshops.

For information on how to get a garden plot, or start a community garden in your neighborhood, visit the La Grande Community Garden page or contact: Nella Parks at nella@oregonrural.org or (541) 974-2411.

The song "Three Artisans" is used with the permission of Shaun Daniel. We're also looking for photos and video of the Baker Community Garden and the Four Rivers Community Garden. Do you have any you'd like to share? Please contact us at info@oregonrural.org or upload them to our Flickr group!

Baker Community Garden

Oregon Rural Action's Baker County Chapter is working with the Baker County Fair Board on this exciting project. At the Baker Community Garden organizations, such as churches and civic groups, can rent a garden plot to grow food for the local food bank. For more information about the successful first season in 2010 and what's coming up in 2011 check out the Baker County Chapter page.

For information on how to get a garden plot, or start a community garden in your neighborhood, visit the Baker Community Garden page or contact Nella Parks at nella@oregonrural.org or (541) 974-2411.

Four Rivers Community Garden

A year after its initial kick-off, the Four Rivers Community Garden is operating successfully as a place for community members to come together, to provide families with a place to grow their own food and learn how to garden, and for addressing local hunger through donations of produce from the garden to the local food bank. The Snake River Chapter of Oregon Rural Action coordinates the garden in partnership with St Matthew's Episcopal Church, Southeast Oregon Regional Food Bank, and the local Ford Institute group. The garden is located at 773 S Oregon St in Ontario.

For more information on how you can get involved with the garden, or to start a community garden in your neighborhood, visit the Four Rivers Community Garden page or contact Nancy Gledhill at nancy@oregonrural.org or (541) 975-2411.

Youth Garden Project

This spring a new project will bring together Eastern Oregon youth from three counties to work and learn in the La Grande, Baker City and Ontario community gardens. Oregon Rural Action was recently awarded a $10,000 grant from the Collins Foundation for partial funding of a Youth Garden Project, and the Wildhorse Foundation awarded $2,100 for seeds and educational materials.

To bring the project to fruition, Oregon Rural Action members are teaming up with partners including Head Start and Boys and Girls Club in each of the counties to teach children how to plan and start their own gardens, how to cook with the foods they grow, and how to engage with their own communities by working with food banks and giving a portion of their harvest back. Learn more about the project and how you can get involved >>