EVERETT, Wash. — If you would like to help others learn to grow their own food or start a community garden, improving your own gardening skills in the process, consider taking the Washington State University Extension Growing Groceries Mentor Training course.
WSU Snohomish County Extension is accepting applications for the next Growing Groceries Mentor Training class series that begins on Saturday, Feb. 12.
Classes will focus on teaching you how to teach others to grow their own food. In the process you will learn better techniques to use in your own garden, how to mentor others, and how to develop a community, school, church or food bank garden.
Classes will be held on Saturdays Feb. 12 and 26, March 5 and 12, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. All sessions except for the March 5 class will be held at the WSU Snohomish County Extension Office in McCollum Park, 600 128th St. SE, Everett.
The March 5 session will be spent attending the Growing Groceries Expo at Monroe High School, 17001 Tester Rd., in Monroe. The Expo entrance fee is included in the tuition.
Tuition is $125 for those willing to join the Growing Groceries mentor program which asks that you volunteer to teach and mentor others and report your results. Without the volunteer commitment tuition is $175.
For application information visit http://snohomish.wsu.edu or call Karie Christensen at 425-357-6039 or email klchristen@cahnrs.wsu.edu.
The Growing Groceries Mentor program was started by WSU Extension educators in 2009 in response to a growing need across the county for sound information about how to grow quality food close to home and for those in need.
Sixty community-minded volunteers, with a combined total of 630 years of gardening experience, applied as did novice gardeners willing to learn and teach.
Those mentors taught new gardening skills in their communities and created new community gardens. As a direct result of their work 12,000 pounds of food was donated to local food banks, plus 60,000 pounds of food was gleaned from farmers’ post harvest fields.
For more information, visit http://snohomish.wsu.edu/extension/extensioncords/hortextcord.pdf or contact Sharon J. Collman at 425-357-6025, email: collmans@wsu.edu