The Fifth Annual Green Bay Garden Blitz, a local partnership of New Leaf Foods and Brown County UW-Extension that aims to empower residents to grow food and be part of a sustainable urban agricultural system, is seeking volunteers to help make their Blitz event a success.
Community members are invited to help build and deliver 8’x4’ garden boxes the weekend of May 3-6, including people who can drive trucks, trailers and other construction vehicles. There are two shifts per day. On Thursday, 5/3, from 2-5 p.m. and 5-8 p.m., volunteers will assist with building the garden boxes. From Friday, 5/4 – Sunday, 5/6 volunteer shifts are from 8:30 a.m until 12:00 p.m and 12:30 p.m. until 4:00 p.m.. Volunteers will work in teams to deliver and install the boxes, as well as fill them with soil. The 2018 Green Bay Garden Blitz is based at Brown County Fairgrounds, located at 1500 Ft Howard Ave, De Pere, with deliveries going out across the city. With the help of community volunteers, the Blitz will install 100 garden boxes in the Green Bay area in 2018, allowing community members to experience the benefits of gardening. During the event, volunteers will experience the rewards of meeting other people who enjoy working outside, getting physical exercise while installing garden boxes, and seeing the results of their greening efforts from start to finish.
In preparation for the event, there is a volunteer training on Tuesday, April 24th from 6 p.m. to 7 p.m. at the Neville Public Museum, 210 Museum Place, Green Bay, WI 54303. This event is a great way to meet other volunteers and feel prepared for the Blitz event. Those interested in participating can RSVP on the event page: https://gbgbvoltraining.eventbrite.com. Contact: gbgardenblitz@gmail.com for more information about volunteering or call 920-32BLITZ (920-322-5489).
Since the Blitz’s start in 2014, the program has installed 476 garden beds, and members of the Green Bay community have experienced countless benefits from participating in the program. As a previous box recipient commented, “I like to garden and I could never make the construction and fill happen by myself… It’s like a gift that keeps on giving, you have the enjoyment of planting things and watching them grow. You have the learning experience of how things grow and the beauty of watching the vegetables and flowers develop.”
The Green Bay Garden Blitz is a project of New Leaf Foods and the Brown County UW-Extension. Our program also benefits from community support, including Green Bay Botanical Garden, the Farmory, Brown County Parks Department, Nature’s Way, Willems Landscape Service, C.H. Robinson, Sunbelt Rentals and Appleton Enterprise Truck Rental. Contact us at: gbgardenblitz@gmail.com or visit our website at : http://www.newleaffoods.org/Garden_Blitz.html and join us on Facebook and Twitter.