332: Barbara Masoner on Growing Food Locally

Caring about local communities and their vegetable gardens.In This Podcast: Looking for a group to join so she could make a difference in her community, Barbara Masoner found a local group that wanted to start a garden project in the state capital.  Readjusting their focus after getting turned down, they got support from the mayor and started a project that is still making a difference more than ten years later. The simple idea now has a team of 400 volunteers all working to help feed food pantries and better their community.Barbara’s background is in environmental studies.  Her first garden was a 4-H project in 5th grade. Thanks to her many gardening mentors, including her great grandfather, she has found gardening rewarding, fun and inspirational.  In 2009 she was one of the founders of Grow Local Colorado (GLC).Since then GLC has grown over 23,000 pounds of fresh produce for dozens of Denver’s communities in need.  Each grow season Barbara oversees some 400 volunteers in ten garden sites, many of those volunteers are young people.  Her goal is to see as many vegetable gardens in Denver as there were Victory Gardens during WWII.Go to https://www.urbanfarm.org/2018/02/24/332-barbara-masoner/ for more information and links on this podcast, and to find our other great guests.