Thank you for joining us for our week-long celebration of food equity, farm-based education, and growing healthy families and children of all ages!

Thank you to all who donated! It is because of the amazing support from our community that we can continue to provide food access, food education, and food nutrition to our youth! And a big thank you to our Dollar for Dollar Match Campaign partners Dave and Jeanne Geiman and the Geiman Family Fund, our partners in philanthropy, and our sponsors!

Lineup of Events

Monday, November 16th: The Farm and The Community Vision of Project GROWS
Welcome Video and Messages from our Board of Directors
Viewing of PBS’ Virginia Farming Episode: “How to Break Down Barriers to Food Access with CSAs“

On Day 1 of our Virtual Gala Week, we are shining a spotlight on the Project GROWS Farm and the community vision that founded our organization ten years ago. Check out Virginia Farming’s episode featuring the Project GROWS farm and the work we do with our Community Supported Agriculture program to improve food access in our community! The episode also highlights ten years of Project GROWS’ vision of community based learning, educating, and supporting public health.

Tuesday, November 17th: Growing Healthy Youth Together & Celebrating National Philanthropy Day

Watch this short video from founding board member and sustaining partner Steve Grande (Director, Community Service-Learning, James Madison University) as he tells the story of the community in Staunton, Waynesboro, and August County coming together to vision GROWS into being!

Stories from Interns (Click here to read more!)

Check out these video messages from our Board Members Ann Lefeve Snyder and James Goalder!

Wednesday, November 18th: Advancing Food Equity & Food Access through Farm to School
3:00 PM Webinar: “Farm to School: Local Farms & Food Literacy“

Join Project GROWS & WMRA Public Radio to listen in on a discussion about the growing need for food literacy, with a focus on Farm to School programs in Staunton and Waynesboro, Virginia.

Watch live on the WMRA Facebook page or register to attend the Zoom Webinar here.

Panelists Include:

• Laura Faircloth, Director of Farm Operations, Project GROWS
• Amanda Warren, Director of School Nutrition, Staunton City Schools
• Megan Marshall, Director of Food Access, Project GROWS
• Laura Bon Cash, School Nutrition Secretary, Waynesboro City Schools

Moderated by Matt Bingay, General Manager, WMRA

Thursday, November 19th: Promoting Healthy Community Food Systems: Farmer’s Markets
Remarks from the Food Access Team (STAY TUNED!)
Check out our 2019 Impact Report to learn more about our efforts to improve food access, particularly with the Farmers Market at the Health Department and our SNAP Double Dollars Program.

Friday, November 20th: Engaging Youth with Garden-Based & Nutrition Education
9:00 AM Webinar: “Farm to AFTERschool: Stories from Partnerships on Food and Farm Education”

Join the staff from the Project GROWS educational farm and the Boys and Girls Club of Waynesboro, Staunton, and Augusta County for an hour of storytelling and sharing over Zoom about 10 years of collaboration between our two organizations to provide students with garden-based learning and food education throughout the school year and over the summer. Our programs include cooking classes, farm field trips, a youth-run produce stand, container gardens, and produce sales of veggie snack packs.

We’ll also share practical ways we’ve discovered for regularly introducing students to a wide variety of vegetables, such as utilizing the Club parking lot as a pickup location for our weekly CSA share, and inviting teens to shop for their own produce at the end of each Youth-Run Farm Stand. Bring your questions for a Q & A at the end of our discussion!

Click here to register on Zoom.

Raffle Items

Winter Tree Identification Hike
January/February 2021
Feeling confident with your vegetable plants and ready to take your plant identification to the next level? Join Nichole Barrows, Project GROWS Director of Education for a winter hike along the North River Gorge near Stokesville, Virginia to identify common Virginia trees and shrubs using winter clues like growing location and bark. We’ll also find fallen leaves and try to match them to trees.  A great hike for young children!  Great mountain top lookout & fun suspension bridge. 

Dinner for Ten at The Farm at Project GROWS!
A Multi-Course, Seasonal Farm to Table Dinner with Farm Tour
Spring 2021
Enjoy an engaging tour of our educational and production farm with dinner to follow under the stars on the farm with our farmers.

From Seed to Harvest: Planning and Growing a Bountiful Summer Garden!
April 2021
Join Director of Farm Operations Laura Faircloth on the Farm at Project GROWS for an interactive, outdoor lesson on how to plan a bountiful summer garden. We’ll start from the ground up from starting seeds, transplanting your seedlings into your garden to tending your plants and harvesting them. We will also cover watering, pest control, pollinators and more! 

Spring Wildflower Identification Hike
May 2021
Are you a flower lover who has never experienced the bloom of native spring woodland ephemerals in the Shenandoah Valley before? Join Nichole Barrows, Project GROWS Director of Education for a spring hike and learn to identify common Virginia wildflowers and flowering woody shrubs. We’ll also look for clues about what other flowers and trees are about to bloom. Great hike for young children!