Howdy! Wow,thank you to whoever invited me here. I wish I could have found something like this last spring.
I guess my situation is a little bit unusual. I live in a small rural town in Ontario, Canada, with a population of around 5000. Last year I went ahead with a longstanding dream of mine to plant a garden with food for the foodbank. I recieved help from a community development agency, formed a small commitee, found people to donate the land and seeds, and planted four different gardens. Two of them failed due to lack of community involvement.
This year we have one central garden located downtown. The committee is down to four of us now, all whom are very involved with the community and spreading ourselves very thin. But we wish to see this garden reach it's potential. last year we donated much food to the foodbanks, so it was successful that way, but volunteers were hard to find, and the idea never really caught on. This year, if we have the time, we plan to increase the publicity, and try to get more foodbank clients involved, but time is so hard to find.
We are always looking for new ideas. thanks.

Sounds Great!

Hi Chris:
I just stumbled upon this site today while trying to dig up info on getting a community garden started here also, and have found responses and input inspiring and will certainly help to get things moving in approaching the town with the pros and cons. Anyhow , an idea came to me on your dilemma which is manpower...how about approaching some of the schools in your area assuming you have some nearby and talk to guidance counselors who might know of juniors or seniors interested in getting involved in the community or how about senior citizens dying to be in charge of something again...no puns intended there...another idea is get the local paper to come out to your gardens and talk to you principals with photos, etc. and the message should get out.
My parents have had the same plot in a CG for 24 years and the local paper is always out there doing articles...Good Luck Katy