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By Chlo Baumbach
MILWAUKEE– Each year Victory Garden Initiative (VGI), a small nonprofit based in the Harambee neighborhood of Milwaukee, rallies together 250+ volunteers to install hundreds of raised garden beds across the county in backyards, school grounds, places of worship, vacant lots, and more.
As we enter our 17th year of the Blitz we have installed over 7,500 raised garden beds! This years’ event is scheduled to take place from April 25th-May 9th. Register to get a garden bed, volunteer, or donate to the event on our website, www.victorygardeninitiative.org, before ordering closes on April 15th!
All bed purchases include a 32-square-foot pine lumber frame assembled by volunteers, a cubic yard of organic Blue Ribbon soil, and vegetable seeds to start your growing journey, courtesy of Froedtert & the Medical College of Wisconsin!
Victory gardens grew popular during WWI and WWII when food supply shortages were a serious threat to domestic security. Planting a garden and growing food was a way for families to ensure they had food to put on the table and to help stabilize the food supply so our country could feed its troops fighting overseas.
In the wake of rising grocery prices and stores leaving neighborhoods on short notice, people are feeling the effects as they go days without a fresh meal. Slashes to funding for food access has left communities with the responsibility of creating their own food systems. At VGI it is important that we build communities who grow their own food in order to create a community-led, socially just, environmentally sustainable and nutritious food system for all.
At Victory Garden Initiative, we saw not only unprecedented interest in getting a garden, but also a huge increase in the need for discounted beds, which is why we sponsor up to 20 free beds (1 per household) for our neighbors in Harambee! Our pricing structure is based on household income-level to help decrease cost throughout all neighborhoods of the city, honing in on highly segregated communities that are historically underserved.
For families who have been struggling with unemployment, lack of access to healthcare, systemic racism, and so much more, a garden can help relieve some of the uncertainty around their food budget. More than that, gardening is shown to have a dramatic positive impact on mental and physical health! By building Victory Gardens we aren’t just growing food, we are growing community, because we believe we all have a stake in ending food insecurity.
The Blitz is made possible because of our community partners who help us procure affordable supplies, who send volunteer crews to help build beds, and who spread the word about our program! These include but are not limited to: Bliffert Lumber (lumber supplier), Enterprise (truck rentals), Lakefront Brewery (trailer), and CASE (skid steer).
