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Volunteers standing in front of the 4th East Community Garden, Sow AgriCULTURE logo, text reads "Grow your impact, 2025 Annual Appeal", and volunteers weeding at the Rose Park Community Garden with a mural in the background.
Growing CommUNITY Through Volunteerism

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Community does not simply exist, community is grown. Community is cultivated and strengthened through meaningful relationships, through listening and supporting and taking action. Hence unity being an inseparable piece of commUNITY, and community being an inseparable piece of Wasatch Community Gardens (WCG).

Volunteers and donors are two other inseparable pieces of WCG’s programs and impact. As a valued member of our community, we invite you to join us with a year-end donation that perfectly complements, and supports, the monumental donation of time given by our volunteers, year after year!

  • $10 purchases a set of hand pruners for a volunteer kit
  • $100 provides about 8 pair of quality gardening gloves for volunteers
  • $1,000 covers the average cost of a set of tools to be used with volunteer groups
YouthWorks volunteers in purple shirts getting instructions from WCG staff.

Throughout 2025 volunteer impact has shone brightly as the hands, hearts, and thousands of volunteer hours dug in to support our programs and fulfill our mission, empowering people to grow and eat healthy, organic, local food. Approximately 1,700 volunteers donated their time through more than 100 events, large and small.

We welcome new people and groups every year. We also embrace returning volunteers like those from YouthWorks, Domain Companies and many other community and corporate groups, who come year after year and often multiple times within one year!

DONATE TODAY!

Last week we gathered in our Education Cottage to say THANK YOU to these volunteers and it is an understatement to say we were inspired by everything they accomplished this year. Our program staff highlighted the impact our volunteers had on the ground making it possible for WCG to meet increasing community demand for productive green space, healthy food, and connection:

“Our [volunteers] are integral in community support, bilingual family engagement, and have taught us more about their own cultural gardening and cooking practices.” - Kimberly Yapias, School and Family Garden Manager
Youth volunteers smiling in the garden

Across our community garden sites and school partner gardens, volunteers planted seedlings and flowers, refreshed soil, tackled shed clean-up, painted vibrant rock variety signs for Public Pick beds, spread wildflower seeds, removed and rebuilt garden beds, trimmed and removed overgrown trees, weeded unwanted plants, cleaned and mulched beds and paths, improved ADA accessibility, established common pathways, and the list goes on!

LEARN
Line of corporate employee volunteers in front of a hoop house frame

At our Campus Teaching and Demonstration Garden, the new City Farm on 1300 South, AND the new Farm Incubator Group Site (FIGS!), volunteers have built greenhouses, garden beds, tables, and a mindfulness circle. They’ve provided lunches for the Green Team and helped prepare the Growing Traditions Garden for Día de Muertos. Many hands have harvested healthy garden snacks and kept these sites beautiful for youth programming and community events, making bouquets, wreaths, and so much more.

GIVE
A child and adults picking out plants at the WCG Spring Plant Sale

WCG’s signature events, the Spring Plant Sale, Tomato Sandwich Party, and Love Local Winter Market, are brought to life by over 1,800 volunteer hours. That means more than the equivalent of 45 40-hour work weeks, and does not include the hours upon hours of preparation before the event dates that our community has come to know, love, and even rely upon. And the impact? Through the Spring Plant Sale we put 47,000 organic food producing plants back into the community, feeding hundreds of humans!

GROW

THANK YOU to this incredible community for donating your time and your money! If you have not given this year, or have the capacity to give more, please visit wasatchgardens.org/donate today to invest in your community with a donation today. With an estimated value of more than $190,000, the thousands of volunteer hours given help WCG responsibly steward your financial gifts to have the greatest impact possible.

We invite you to get involved with WCG in a new way to personally experience our collective impact, whether by making a plan to volunteer in 2026, supporting our programs through your year-end donation to WCG, or both.

Let’s grow together!
Headshot of Executive Director, Katie Dwyer

 

 

 

 

 

Katie Dwyer
Executive Director

PS: As we reflect on year three of our Five-Year Growth Plan, we’re invigorated by the incredible impact of individual and group volunteers helping grow commUNITY, and sow agriCULTURE. Can you help us meet growing demand for healthy food access by making a monthly recurring donation or adding an extra $10 or more to your year-end donation? Thank you for matching the enthusiasm and impact of our volunteers with your gift!
 
Volunteer in green volunteer hat harvesting lavender
Adult and child smiling while harvesting corn stalks
Corporate volunteer group in blue shirts working in the dirt at City Farm on 1300 South
 

Wasatch Community Gardens

629 E 800 S
Salt Lake City, UT  84102

Click here to donate online.

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