The “Victory Garden Initiative - 2026” is requesting donations now until the deadline on December 14.

 

Donations can be made through SeedMoney at https://bit.ly/VictoryGardenDonate, or click on the QR code [below].
 

The Initiative provides vegetable seeds and plants, along with soil, compost and seed trays, to families through local
Food Pantries. The purpose is to help stretch family food budgets as the cost of groceries, and the cuts to federal food
programs, increase the need for access to healthy vegetables.
The Victory Garden Initiative (VGI) began in 2025 by Indivisible Newaygo County (INC) in response to the increased need
for food security by families in Newaygo County. INC members funded seed trays and soil for the project, and procured
free seeds. Volunteers were recruited to start and grow over 800 vegetable plants, which were given away for family
gardens.

In addition to growing and giving away vegetable plants, volunteers gleaned bushels of season’s end squash, onions and
peppers from local Kaufman Amish Farm. These were then donated to TrueNorth Services in Fremont and Benny’s
House Food Pantry in White Cloud.

“We intend to expand the Victory Garden Initiative in 2026,” states Doug Bonner of INC, who started the project last
spring. “We were amazed at the response we received, both from people who want and need to stretch their food
budgets, but also from volunteers and donors.”

Indivisible Newaygo County participated in the “Home Grown Gardening” event last April at TrueNorth, which provided
information, resources, seeds and compost to community members to help grow vegetable gardens. TrueNorth,
Newaygo Conservation District and Newaygo County Environmental Coalition collaborated on this program and plan to repeat it this coming spring of 2026.

This Victory Garden Initiative donation request is through the nonprofit “SeedMoney”, whose mission is to “help more
individuals and communities, especially disadvantaged ones, to grow more of their own healthy food”. They do this
through supporting crowd sourced donations with matching challenge grants.
 

“About 1 in 6 neighbors, or 8,000 people, grapple with food insecurity, including 2,130 children in Newaygo County,”
states Elizabeth Pitzer, co-coordinator of the project. “Access to affordable healthy food due to high unemployment, lack
of rural public transportation, few grocery stores in this sprawling county, and cuts to food service programs are major
barriers to healthy eating. We want to help lessen the food access burden.”

“The Victory Garden donation challenge ends on December 14, so we urge community members to donate today,” adds
Elizabeth. “A successful funding challenge will expand the Victory Garden Initiative, and increase the number of gardens
and healthy fresh foods for families in need in our county.”

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Won't you help us feed Newaygo County? Donate today!​