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Last year, we reached remarkable heights, thanks to our collective dedication and effort. Here’s a glimpse into our 2024 triumphs.
We finished major construction projects at our garden on the Our Place Campus. These projects included two hoop houses, cold storage, irrigation for all active growing spaces, and breaking ground for our native plant garden.
Soulful Seeds received three community awards last year including the 100% Board Giving Award, Compass Rose Award for Service through UNR School of Social Work, and recognition as a USDA Certified People's Garden.
We worked with 532 unduplicated volunteers in the gardens and increased community engagement by 34% in the gardens. Volunteer hours increased from 1,798.5 in 2023 to 2,412.69 hours in 2024.
We continued to implement our robust staffing plan that was approved in 2022. We hired a full-time Executive Director, Cara Montoya. She has allowed us to streamline our operations, enhance team collaboration, and will help to drive significant progress toward our organizational goals in 2025.
We launched two workforce development programs as part of our USDA Grant. We hired our very first Arborist Apprentice, Seth. Seth has jumped right in as has started his education and on the job learning portions of his apprenticeship. We also hosted our first Same Day Work and Pay sessions resulting in 45 paid hours.
We expanded the amount of green waste we collect from partners. Our green waste partners include Saint Mary's Hospital, Grand Sierra Resort, and the Great Basin Food Co-op. Through these partnerships, we make compost from local green waste to amend our growing spaces. This approach reduces our operating costs, supports a hyper-local food system, and improves our sustainability.
We facilitated 391.25 programming hours for guests of the Our Place Campus. Programs included garden therapy, beekeeping for trauma survivors, and cooking/nutrition education.
Through the work of our interns and Program Coordinator, and Garden Manager we regularly engaged ten community groups in the garden throughout the growing season including Step 2, Tahoe Expedition Academy, CrossRoads Women, and Master Gardeners of Washoe County, UNR School of Social Work, The Abbi Agency, and Sanford Center for Aging.
Over the last year, we presented Soulful Seeds' mission to 24 different groups with a passion for improving our community. Those groups helped us to coordinate new volunteer events, supply drives, and donated to support our work.
We saw countless native pollinators and caught and re-homed two honey bee swarms. This is fantastic for urban agriculture as pollinators play a crucial role in the health and productivity of crops. Through the work of regenerative farming and restoration, we've seen an increase in pollinator presence in all our growing spaces.
Through the work of our intern and Program Coordinator, we regularly engaged ten community groups in the garden throughout the growing season including Step 2, the Women and Children's Center of the Sierra, Tahoe Expedition Academy, CrossRoads Women, and Master Gardeners of Washoe County.
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