After half a decade of serving the surrounding community, it is a great time to take a stroll through memory lane and recount the growth (pun intended) of the Tray it Forward project!
In 2020, the COVID-19 pandemic posed a threat to our local communities relationships, financial stability, and food security. In the midst of the rising mayhem and stress, a small group of Granite Staters asked themselves:
“What can we do to help this whole situation?
-Greg Berger, owner of Spring Ledge farm.
Organizations– including Kearsarge Food Hub, Colby Sawyer College, Kearsarge Neighborhood Partners, and Spring Ledge farm– came together (on Zoom, of course) to brainstorm what support they could offer for their community. After tinkering with different concepts, they ultimately decided upon the Tray it Forward initiative: a project that allows each of the partners to utilize their strengths in unique ways. The Tray it Forward project was born, sprouting a new hope for local food revitalization and community building by providing free seedlings to aspiring gardeners in the surrounding towns.
In the following years, Tray it Forward continued, but, of course, with time comes change. Since 2020, Tray it Forward has increased the amount of seedlings that are supplied to gardeners, reaching 550 trays (8,000 seedlings) this year, an increase of 200 trays since the first year of the project! Not only has the quantity improved, but the quality has too. The Tray it Forward team has been working hard to learn what participants want in a tray and need from the program: changing the size of trays, the seedling assortment within the trays, and providing support throughout the summer in the form of e-newsletters, how-to videos, gardening guides, question forms, exploring in person workshops, and surveys.
Looking forward into the next half a decade, the Tray it Forward project plans to continue onward, inspired to continue growing gardeners and fostering a local community engaged in growing their own food! As part of this enthusiasm for growth and continuance, an internship was created this summer with the goal of improving the program for future years. The summer intern will spend the season learning about the program from a variety of perspectives– from the creators of the project to the participants - and coming up with recommendations based on this research for how to improve.
None of this would be possible without the community members who support this project and allow these aspirations to be actualized. This year alone, over 40 volunteers from Kearsarge Neighborhood Partners made the project feasible, helping at every step from attending meetings early in the year to helping grow the seedlings to delivering the trays on delivery day. At the same time, support from community members who donate money or goods to support this project allows the team to continue supplying seedlings to anyone who requests them year after year free of charge.
The project has continuously received immense support from individuals in the community as well as businesses like Griffin Greenhouse Supply, Johnny's Seeds, and Ball Seed Company. Without all of you, this milestone would not have been possible, and neither would the optimism the team has looking forward. So for this half decade anniversary the Tray it Forward team would like to say:
Thank you!
