Garden City Harvest

Learning about Philanthropy has been a very eye opening experience. This class has not only opened my eyes to non profits, but I have been more exposed to tough life decisions. We were split into different groups with the responsibility of conducting an interview with each non profit. My group chose to look deeper into Garden City Harvest, a local non profit in Missoula.     

    

 

 

The day we arrived for the interview, I had no idea what to expect. I was instantly blown away by their professionalism, welcoming atmosphere, passion, and drive for helping the community of Missoula, which clearly has an immense amount of respect for Garden City Harvest. Talking to one of the women who worked at the non profit, we could see that the Garden City Harvest employees love their job. This non profit has the goal to impact people’s lives, which is absolutely beautiful. We were quickly educated on their message, their non profit is meant for so much more than growing food. They have impacted many lives in Missoula. They have educated, inspired, and sparked that desired connection between the earth and people. Something that people thought was long gone, the beauty and respect for the earth.

My group and I were thoroughly impressed by Garden City Harvest. As we departed, they gave us a map of all their community gardens and farms. With a spare hour, we decided to check out one of these gardens.

The garden was wonderful and had the same vibe that Garden City Harvest expressed. We took a walk around and found evidence of hard work, love, and compassion for the earth. The garden wasn’t closed off; it was completely open demonstrating that Garden City Harvest isn’t a shut off non profit. They want people to see what they are accomplishing and share the connection to the earth.

Overall, my group members and I were blown away by Garden City Harvest. We found we were slightly bias in class discussions, because we already had been deeply impacted by a non profit. Nonetheless, I learned very quickly that this project wasn’t going to be happy and cheerful. We were going to have to make difficult decisions that would ultimately impact who was getting the money from this grant. The most important aspect in the end is the impact and reform that this will start in Missoula. That’s the constant thought I have had throughout this process and I learned that from this program.