Shannon Kemp and Dayna Conner started the Green Corn Project (GCP) in Austin in 1998, as a way to help people who are physically handicapped or economically disadvantaged grow their own nutritious food in their own backyards. The name was chosen to honor a Creek Indian celebration, the Green Corn Festival, which was held each year to thank the spirits for their benevolence and the first green shoots from the corn plant.
Suanne McLellan, current Green Corn Project board president, said the core mission of the group is the same as it ever was, though it has branched out to include gardens at more than half a dozen schools in Austin and institutions like homeless shelters.
"Our focus is still on working with people who have limited access to nutritious food," McLellan said. "We show them how to grow their own organic gardens. We get the garden started for them, and help them for the first couple of years or so. The goal is for them to learn how to plant and grow their own gardens so they can become self-sufficient."
For GCP volunteers, the year starts with a Seeds-to-Starts program that begins in January (the next one is Jan. 28). Participants learn how to prepare soil for seeds, how to plant seeds and how to transfer seedlings into starter pots. The project has helped more than 160 gardeners and their families start gardens with the goal of becoming lifetime, self-sufficient gardeners. Once every season, volunteers return to the garden to refurbish the beds with additional compost and starter seeds for that season's crops. GCP also has a Seeds-to-Starts session for fall and winter gardens, too.
GCP provides compost, seeds and seedlings to the new gardeners. Volunteers then "double dig" the garden, which allows the roots to grow deeper and also makes better use of water. Hexagonal spacing of plants and companion planting -- placing plants that grow well together next to each other -- to help increase yields in small spaces. Volunteers offer organic pest control recipes and the new gardeners are urged to avoid chemical fertilizers and herbicides as they take over maintenance of the garden.
As the garden grows, the beds are maintained, watered, weeded and eventually harvested. GCP generally works with the gardeners for two years, at which time most of them are ready to maintain the garden on their own. McLellan said the majority of the gardeners who sign up with GCP -- about 80 percent of them -- stay with it, though some drop out because they move, their situation changes or, in rare instances, the people decide a garden is just too much work.
"We are a non-profit, all volunteer staff," McLellan said. "A lot of our volunteers want to learn how to grow a garden, and the great thing about starting a garden in this part of the country is that you can have one practically year-round. Twenty five or 30 years ago, most people knew how to grow a garden. Now -- not so much. A lot of the people who volunteer for us volunteer because they want to learn how to grow their own gardens. At the same time, they're helping other people learn how to garden, too."
Experienced gardeners, which often includes people who originally joined up to learn how to grow their own gardens, become dig-in leaders who help coordinate and lead the winter and summer dig-ins. Volunteers don't commit to a specific amount of time or work but sign up for the dig-ins and refurbishing projects to fit their own schedules.
"There's a huge spectrum of volunteers," McLellan said. "They basically volunteer based on how much they want to put into it. They can sign up for one dig-in or for as many things as they want. Some people just volunteer to help with the fund-raising or the fall festival, and others do a whole lot more."
In 2003, GCP began partnering with Habitat for Humanity, which builds homes for low income families that otherwise wouldn't be able to afford one. If recipients of those homes want a garden, the people from Green Corn Project will help them get started. Students do most of the work at the school gardens.
In 2005, GCP began installing gardens at elementary schools in underserved areas for teachers to use as educational tools. Eva Rosenthal, a teacher at Metz Elementary, site of GCP's first school garden, said the garden allows the students to learn about horticulture on a very basic level.
"We write about our plants, read books about gardening and plants, and how those needs are interdependent," she said. "The students become ambassadors for fresh vegetables and often end up leading their parents into the produce sections of their grocery stores."
McLellan said the school projects are rewarding and important but that Green Corn Project's forte remains working with individuals. That was what first drew her and her husband to GCP, where they started as volunteers and now serve on the board.
"It's such a good feeling to help someone get started with their garden," she said. "That's what still drives us and most of the volunteers."
For more information on the Green Corn Project, including volunteer activities or to sign up for a garden, visit the GCP website at greencornproject.org.
