History

Wasatch Fish & Gardens

Wasatch Community Gardens emerged from a Crossroads Urban Center pilot project to provide fish for primarily Southeast Asian refugee communities in the Salt Lake valley. Carp were harvested from local waters and distributed at a low cost.

The Seeds of Community Gardening

Not long after the Fish Co-op project began, Crossroads Urban Center recognized an opportunity to make use of vacant lots to help people grow fresh, nutritious food for themselves and their families. They secured funding for tillers and a small farm tractor, thus initiating a community gardening program that became known as Wasatch Fish & Gardens.

In 1987, Nick Hershenow was hired to direct the project. He formed a board of directors to help him spin off Wasatch Fish & Gardens into an independent 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization.

In the early days of the community gardening program (1988-92), the staff was eager to start as many gardens as possible in order to serve the greatest number of people. By 1991, the program had swelled to nine gardens, but most of them only had five to ten gardeners working in each. As a result, only a small number of people benefited from a program that was extremely time-intensive for the staff. To solve this problem, the staff focused on just four community gardens and worked to increase the nuber of gardeners in each.

Thanks to this shift in resource allocation, today we are able to successfuly operate seven gardens serving approximately 170 community gardeners. There are also 40 plots allocated to the Youth Gardening Program, located in our Grateful Tomato and Fairpark gardens.

Youth Gardening Takes Root

The Youth Gardening Program emerged in the spring of 1993. It grew out of the idea that Salt Lake City teens could benefit from the experience of cultivating vegetables. With the help of several dedicated volunteers, executive director Erik Kingston and staff member Tom Johnson coordinated the first season of The Youth Gardening Program.

Youth gardeners in the program took produce they grew at our gardens to the Downtown Farmer’s Market, dividing proceeds according to the number of hours they worked. A portion of what they grew was also donated to local food banks and other food assistance organizations.

Each year, the Youth Gardening Program grew and changed based on the previous year's successes and obstacles. The 1993 program had a core group of 5-7 teenagers. A small group of younger children from the Traveler’s Aid Society (now known as The Road Home) were also involved. However, the program didn't serve enough young people to solicit sufficient funding so a partnership was formed with Youth Force, a Salt Lake County-based program for at-risk youth working in the community. Unfortunately, this collaboration was short-lived and the program wasn't able to offer the transportation or support needed for many youth to participate.

New Pathways in Partnerships

Over the next year, transportation became the main obstacle to the success and growth of the program. To solve this issue, staff members decided to collaborate with a number of agencies that already had established youth programs for inner-city, low income, or at-risk youth.

By 1996, the Youth Gardening Program was collaborating with YWCA’s Girls to Women Gang Prevention Program, Valley Mental Health’s ARTEC, Salt Lake Neighborhood Housing’s Youth Works, Boys and Girls Clubs, Central City Community Center, Neighborhood House, and Northwest Multipurpose Center. These new partnerships allowed the Youth Gardening Program to serve over 300 young people.

Today, more than 1,200 youth are served in our program each year thanks to partnerships with over 25 different agencies.

Embracing Change

As the community and youth gardening programs developed and expanded, the Fish Co-op floundered. Demand for the carp decreased in spite of the efforts of then-director Erik Kingston. In 1993, the co-op ceased fish distribution altogether.

After a few unsuccessful revival efforts and months of consideration, the board and staff created a new mission statement, a new logo (at left), and a new name: Wasatch Community Gardens.

Today, our mission is to empower people of all ages and incomes to grow and eat healthy, organic, local food. From our humble beginnings, we have sprouted into an organization that serves over 9,000 people each year in our Youth Gardening, Community Gardening, and Education programs. With your support, we will continue to grow!