With Gratitude to our Supporting Organizations

Thank you to these wonderful organizations!

Thank You GEICO for Your Generous Support!

Here’s a huge “shout out” to our friends and corporate partner at GEICO, whose generous gift of $5,000 will provide important support to CGT’s garden education program and for the purchase of supplies and materials to keep our gardens thriving!  Thanks to GEICO we are now able to construct 100 Kids in Gardens education kits and acquire school supplies for these students, including bug nets, insect enclosures, compost and temperature gauges, and much, much more. Through its donation, GEICO will also become a CGT Adopt A Garden sponsor, which provides mulch, tools, and other equipment and supplies to keep our gardens green.  Thanks again to GEICO for their support of CGT’s mission and programs!

Thanks to Desert Garden Club’s Adopt A Garden Sponsorship!  The Club’s generous grant of $1,000 will increase our impact throughout Tucson by providing greater neighborhood gardening opportunities for individuals and families who want to grow fresh, healthy, and nutritious food for the table.

Thanks to the Tucson Audubon Society for installing 17 owl nesting boxes at 16 of our gardens. Hosting owls means chemical-free pest control for our gardens!  Learn more about it here!

Thanks AZ Game and Fish Department Heritage K-12 Small Grant Program for supporting Our Kids in Gardens Program “Pollinator Magic!” The grant let us teach second graders at Homer Davis school in person and virtually about the wonderous pollinators of the Sonoran Desert. Together we made a bee condo for the garden, clay seed balls, learned nesting habits, planted a pollinator plot, created individual garden kits for the students and more! The students were all a-buzz!

Thanks to Pima County Fleet Services for donating a 2009 Ford Ranger pickup truck to Community Gardens of Tucson!

With gratitude to these schools for helping support our gardens located on their grounds by paying for the water that keeps them growing and kids learning:  AZ State School for the Deaf and the Blind;  Doolen Elementary;  The Gregory School; Ventana Vista;  Sunrise Drive Elementary;  Homer Davis Elementary.

Our deepest thanks and heartfelt appreciation to the Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation for their generous financial support to establish our Garden Literacy Project. CGT will use these funds to establish a Garden Literacy Program to connect students and teachers in their daily classroom activities to the garden.

Our deepest thanks and heartfelt appreciation to the Whole Kids Foundation for their generous support of our Edible Educational Garden Project conducted in partnership with Mary Meredith K-12 School. This project will help us develop an exciting, innovative and sustainable learning space for the school’s students, creating a “learning garden” and a gardening curriculum for teachers and students to expand their learning experiences in a safe and welcoming gardening environment.

Thanks to a $15,000 grant from The Kroger Co. Zero Hunger |Zero Waste Foundation we will be able to reach two important goals:

    *Provide 30 families, totaling approximately 100 individuals (parents, children, siblings and other relatives) with the instruction, wisdom, support, hands-on expertise, and resources to become lifelong gardeners and stewards of our Sonoran desert environment.  We will achieve this outcome by teaching families the basics of desert gardening: all that is required to successfully plant, nurture, and harvest their produce and to then prepare and cook the food they have grown. Our ultimate goal for this project is to instill the confidence and the knowledge for families to be able to leave the camp and successfully garden on their own.

   *Through our Adopt a Garden Sponsorship, we will dramatically improve and rejuvenate eight of CGT’s community gardens so that their productivity and social benefits are maximized for our gardeners.  In addition to addressing critical infrastructure needs – such as irrigation drip lines and shade cloth to protect plants from the summer heat – we also expect to better serve those who have limited mobility by increasing the number of “raised beds,” as well as procuring gardening equipment designed for elderly and folks with physical challenges.  By improving our gardens and promoting the good will of Kroger through signage and other public communications tools, we will attract more gardeners to our organization which will, in turn, provide critical new financial resources so that our gardens, and ultimately our communities, thrive!

Deepest thanks to the Tucson Foundations,directed by the Lohse Family, for funding this year’s license renewal to Catchafire, provided through the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona.

We are grateful to the Graesser Foundation, held at the Tucson Foundations for granting us $5,000 to conduct an organizational assessment of CGT. This invaluable process will help us prepare for future growth and having a greater impact in the communities we serve. Thank you for helping us “make the world a better place!”

A happy thanks to KidsGardening.org for granting $500 to help support our Kids in Gardens elementary school education program. KidsGardening.org “creates opportunities for kids to learn and grow through gardening, engaging their natural curiosity and wonder.” A perfect match for us!

Our deepest thanks to the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona for its recent capacity building grant given to CGT to support A Green Renaissance – Building A Healthy and Hunger-Free Tucson In Partnership With Tucson’s Community Gardening Sector.

Using the Food Bank’s amazing financial investment, during the coming year CGT will work to meet the three project goals of (1) restoring and rejuvenating our gardens to maximize their productivity and community access; (2)broadening and deepening our connections with the community by building on and expanding institutions and pathways; and (3)investing in strategic alliances to achieve greater outcomes though collaborations with like-minded organizations.  The philanthropic spirit of the Food Bank of Southern Arizona provides critical support, not only for organizations such as CGT, but for the greater Tucson nonprofit sector.  Thank you!

Thank you again Community Foundation for Southern Arizona!

Our deepest appreciation to the Hanna Miller and Luke Jakobsen Fund, held at the the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona, for awarding CGT a $5,000 grant by to be used for general support. This will provide us with critical resources necessary to continue our work and expand our impact across the City of Tucson, especially needed in these challenging times.

Thanks to a wonderful Sprouts Employee Wellness Donor!  As part of the Sprouts employee wellness program, one team member is selected each month to award a $2,500 donation to a nonprofit of their choice. The November winner, Rachel Miller, selected Community Gardens of Tucson!

We are excited and grateful the Tucson Osteopathic Medical Foundation for selecting Community Gardens of Tucson for a Thriving Nonprofit Technology Grant of $4915! We are excited to expand our use of technology in our gardens and for our gardeners!

Our deepest thanks and appreciation for the $2,500 grant recently awarded to us by the Troller Fund, held at the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona. The incredible generosity and philanthropic spirit of the donors directing these funds to CGT will provide the organization with critical resources to continue our work in underserved communities and those at greatest risk from COVID-19 so that they might bring fresh, healthy and nutritious food from garden to table!

The Board of Directors of Community Gardens of Tucson (CGT) expresses its deepest thanks and appreciation for the $5,000 grant recently awarded CGT by The Martin and Hildegard Gluck Foundation.  The Foundation’s incredible generosity will provide us with critical resources to continue our work in underserved communities and support those at greatest risk from COVID-19 so that they might bring fresh, healthy and nutritious food from garden to table.  We extend heartfelt thanks to the Foundationfor its philanthropic spirit and investment in our programs, and for inspiring us to help make Tucson a more sustainable and food-resilient City!

We are honored for the continued recognition of our work by the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona for the $5,000 We Are One | Somos Uno Resiliency Fund grant we received to support critical staffing needs and additional scholarships for our low income and pandemic – impacted gardeners. CFSA’s purpose is “To create an equitable and vibrant community for all Southern Arizonans.” Their support strengthens our own ability to play an important role in fulfilling that purpose. Thank you!

Thank you to the Arizona Master Naturalists for their volunteers hours making tippy taps for our community gardens so we can wash our hands safely! And more gratitude for helping us educate young students in our Kids in Gardens program!

With gratitude for a $1,500 grant from the Spicer Foundation. The grant will help provide scholarships to low income individuals so that they can learn gardening techniques to grow their own food and meet the challenges of shortages during the COVID-19 pandemic. Funds will also be used to conduct interviews with the gardeners to record and analyze their experiences.

A gift of hands-free water! Thanks to Watershed Management Group for their gift of four “tippy taps” to place in our gardens so our gardeners (and passersby) can wash their hands without touching anything, and save water from pouring out of our taps. Watch how it works here!

And thanks to the Alliance of Nonprofitsfor their gift of funds from their Arizona Gives Nonprofit Emergency Relief Fund which was created to help nonprofits of all sizes across the state!

The Community Gardens of Tucson wants to gratefully acknowledge and thank the Desert Garden Club of Tucson for its generous matching gift of $2,000 in support of our Kids in Garden Program.  This support will provide CGT the critical financial resources necessary to expand the reach and impact of the program by sowing seeds in the hearts of younger gardeners to foster their love for the environment and the communities in which they live!  Thank you Desert Garden Club of Tucson!

Wonderful news and much gratitude! Community Gardens of Tucson has received a generous grant from the Hanna Miller and Luke Jacobson Fund held at the Community Foundation for Southern Arizona. This grant will help us expand our impact and fulfill our commitment to create and support accessible community gardens for Tucsonans of all ages, abilities, ethnic backgrounds, and economic standing. We’ll also be able to introduce the joy of gardening to more elementary school children by expanding our Kids in Gardens education project. Thank you!

And a special thank you to Jason Tankersley, CEO of the Fairfax Companies/Tanks Green Stuff for providing us compost and financial support for so many years.