Y'all, this is very personal, and I'm so happy to have some of my closest friends join me to chat up our special place, Growing to Give. Growing to Give is a climate-friendly, volunteer-driven, nonprofit farming operation in Brunswick, Maine, that grows certified-organic vegetables for donation. I invited my friends Karin Sorensen, Robin Knight and Mary Aveno to help me to chat up our favorite non-profit where we all had the honor of helping to grow organic produce to donate to local food pantries to offer some highly nutritious produce to our less food secure neighbors. We all met there, and became fast friends, and more like family in the same purpose. We missed each other when we were absent, and celebrated every day we were together, and we did some great work (they still do, but Karin and I moved away), and have helped to grow and donate over 100,000 lbs of food! There are several other volunteers at Growing to Give - too many to gather for an episode and everyone get a word in, but that's how the magic happens.
Growing to Give began as a dream of property owners Patty Carton and John Newlin in 2015, and 2017 was the first year officially growing, and Robin and I were the first 2 volunteers with Theda, the OG Farm Manager, with 1 Rimol greenhouse, and now it's a well-oiled machine of hundreds of volunteers annually, several hoop houses for growing, as well as farm skills workshops, elderberry workshops, and an annual Farmyard Jam fundraiser. It's a very special place of fun, healing and family.
Please check out Growing to Give here: https://growingtogive.farm/
They're on Instagram here: https://www.instagram.com/growingtogivemaine/?hl=en
And on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/GrowingtoGive/
You can register as a volunteer, join the board, see upcoming events, sign up to receive the newsletter, or donate to this special cause.
Also check out Podcasthon here to see so many other worthy causes to support: https://podcasthon.org
See some great content highlighting podcasts and causes on Instagram here:
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You can DM me there or email me at amysgardenjam@gmail.com
Website for Amy's Garden Jam is https://amysgardenjam.com/ (podcast has its own tab on this site!)
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How Do I Get There From Here by Jane Bolduc - listen to more at https://www.janebolduc.com/
Podcast cover by Becca Kofron- follow here on Instagram here https://www.instagram.com/cute_but_loud/ and check out her awesome art projects.
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