The Victory Garden Initiative (VGI) and Transition Milwaukee (TM) organized the second Milwaukee Victory Garden Blitz on Saturday, May 29. The event runs from 8 a.m. to 4 p.m. and offers material, construction and educational support for Milwaukee residents, schools, churches.
Washington Heights' neighbors will work together to install their neighborhood's only community garden, while 12 other Victory Garden Blitz teams will move grass and plant food in various locations in the city.
"We will be transforming what was a blighted and condemned property into a vibrant community garden," said Melissa Scanlan, organizer of the Washington Heights Community Garden. "There will be a common area with perennial fruits, vegetables and flowers to be shared by the community, and 24 raised beds that can be rented by individual households."
The Washington Heights Community Garden is a partnership that involves neighbors, Milwaukee Urban Gardens, Urban Ecology Center, the Green Committee of Washington Heights Neighborhood Association, Hi Mount Community School and the Victory Garden Initiative.
"The Washington Heights Community Garden will be one of 165 gardens the Victory Gardens Initiative aims to install on May 29th," according to Gretchen Mead, director of the Victory Gardens Initiative.
Currently, over 100 volunteers have already signed on to build gardens across Milwaukee, but this amount of work requires twice that amount of volunteers.
"Volunteering is more than constructing lasting nutrition, it is educating the new gardener, it is self-sufficiency during and economic depression, it is exercise, and it builds community," says Scanlan.
The Victory Garden Initiative was founded in 2008 and promotes the use of backyards, front yards, rooftops and open spaces for the production of food. Through outreach, mentoring and modeling, the group aims to catalyze the message and production of healthy, sustainable and self-sufficient local food supplies.
"This year, Blitz Day is a testament to the enormous growth of support for the vision of the Victory Garden Initiative in the Milwaukee area," says Mead. "This Blitz Day, our community will come together to support each other in the creation of this cultural shift. This is how we'll change the world: real change, one garden at a time."
