Grace Grows

08/25/2026

The pilot food hub project is being conducted by Frog Song Farm and Alachua County Fresh Food Pathways Program

Pilot Project Update and Info Session
Wednesday, Sept 2, 5-7pm

Learn about the food hub pilot progress to date and discuss opportunities to participate by selling locally grown produce, purchasing products, or participating in the food access and workforce training initiatives.

Join if you are a...
*grower who wants to increase sales of locally grown food
restaurant, foodservice,
*institution or retailer looking to source more local products
*community member interested in supporting local food initiatives

Please sign up here: https://form.jotform.com/262305044672048

07/28/2026

We just wanted to remind folks of this important community event happening August 1st and 2nd!

07/17/2026

We are sharing this in support of our friends at Working Food. Your participation supports community driven design for their online farmer’s market- which, in turn, supports local farmers and improves food security locally. 🥬🥧🍊🥜💚

This spring, Working Food launched the pilot season of our new online market.

Help shape the future of the Online Market! Complete our shopper survey by July 27 to be entered into a drawing for one of two $100 gift certificates. You can still take the survey even if you didn't get a chance to shop from the market during our pilot season. Survey link: https://forms.gle/ojqPRfcK8gc3AqpcA

We’ll use this feedback to shape the next market season. Thank you for helping build a market that reflects our community!

When you shop with the Working Food Online Market, your dollars support our local vendors so that they can continue to partner with us and offer a diverse array of local products through our shared storefront.

We are currently pausing the market operations for a summer break, but we will return in the fall with more abundance from our local farmers and artisans! We will offer weekly ordering from around mid-September - mid-June for the 2026-2027 season.

06/23/2026

Working Food is growing!

06/13/2026

We do therapeutic horticulture in a space where folks experience a lot of struggle because they are experiencing homelessness but something that is really special about what we do is that it’s really rooted in connection. We learn about one another and work alongside one another as equals. This helps upend the status quo nonprofit services dynamic where one more privileged group comes in and gives things to “the poor.” Don’t get us wrong, helping is super important. We DO need folks giving food, giving medicine, and more, but still there is an inherent power differential during those interactions. In the garden, we try to challenge that power dynamic recognizing that all people have something to offer, even folks who only have the clothes on their backs.

Often, the time we spend in the garden is not ABOUT the struggle, even though it also can be a place for safe conversation about it. We learn about each other’s favorite plants, their grandmother’s recipes, their grandparent’s farm, what church their families went to for generations, and so many things about one another’s lives that transcend the homeless experience.

It can be really hard to separate oneself from all the stigmas and struggle when immersed but it’s important to remember who you are, and it’s important that loving people can just BE together and make one another feel seen. If there is one tone we always want to set in that space, it is that all who enter the garden are truly seen. We are all more than the worst things that have happen to us.

06/10/2026

Big thank you to Julius The Great Irving for your powerful talk at the Food System Coalition today!

06/09/2026

The Food System Coalition Meeting is tomorrow. Here is the draft agenda. Join us at Greater Bethel AME from 2:00-3:30. Bring your flyers! We need folks from across the spectrum to work together. This is where we will find hope and resilience to continue making a difference.

06/08/2026

Join us for this Wednesday’s Food System Coalition of NCFL meeting where folks across the spectrum of food systems come together to address both pressing and systemic issues in our communities.

Our guest speaker this month is Julius Irving. He is the Community Engagement Coordinator for Community Spring, a Represent Justice Filmmaker, Uncarcerated Podcast Cohost and more. He will be speaking about how to show up for/in marginalized communities in an ethical, moral, and impactful manner, and the amazing work he is doing in the community. Please come out and support this powerful community organizer and leader.

To read more about Julius check out his bio on Community Spring’s website. https://www.csgnv.org/julius-irving

To sign up follow the link on our pinned post or see the comments.

05/29/2026

We've been using a really large listserv for a while now to invite people to join the Food System Coalition of North Central Florida. If you have not signed up here
https://forms.gle/v8QrAfrK6Dipa59W7
Please do, or else you won't receive invites in the future. We don't want to spam people, and this helps us be organized.

You can also sign up via the link in our Instagram bio.

Our goal is to improve food justice in the North Central Florida community by bringing together diverse stakeholders to collaborate on addressing both pressing and systemic food system issues. By bringing diverse stakeholders together, we break down silos, enhance collective capacity, and improve coordinated community responses.

We especially encourage folks from impacted groups to join!

05/24/2026

In the garden, when someone from the shelter wants to be involved, one of the first things we do is ask them if they’d like to reserve a raised bed for themselves. We keep paint, signs, and seeds, on site for this reason. Many folks like painting their own signs and add unique artistic elements to their beds, but others prefer we do it for them. When we paint their signs, we like to add little things that showcase their personality so they know we are listening and paying attention. Each name sign reflects something special about the gardener to whom it belongs before the plants are even grown. In crisis environments folks are often rushed through, and pauses for expressing empathy can be few and far in between. These systems can feel cold and if you’ve ever experienced them, it’s a specific kind of trauma, where people feel “managed” and alienated. However, in the garden we try to be intentional, fostering an environment where we can open our ears, eyes, and hearts again to one another again. Food and health are so important but it’s so much easier to get there, so much more humane, when people who are struggling feel seen.