THANK YOU for Showing Your Support!

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Thank You!! {heart} December Donors. Community Gardens Create Healthy Communities

We are so happy to report that the Coalition has received over $4,000 in donations this year through our CoMoGives campaign and other donations!!!

These gifts mean A LOT to our small, all-volunteer organization! We very grateful for the continued interest and support of our mission as we move into our 42nd year as an organization!

Of course, if you meant to donate and missed the CoMoGives deadline, please know that you can donate anytime via our PayPal donations portal.

We wish all of our gardeners, volunteers and supporters a Happy New Year. We hope you can spend this winter planning your best garden ever!

Spotlight on the Interfaith Garden

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The Community Garden Coalition has been helping Boone County residents grow healthful produce and develop gardening communities for over 40 years. One of our member gardens that I think epitomizes the ideal of community gardening is the Interfaith Garden. 

The coordinators of the Interfaith Garden stand next to their garden sign.
From left: Lily Chan, Noah Heringman, Suzanne Hemmann, Susan DeMian and Brent Lowenberg. Photo credit: Kathy Doisy

Originally, it began in 2006 as the Congregation Beth Shalom (CBS) Community Garden, to provide a service opportunity for students at the CBS school with the harvest donated to the Food Bank. Student volunteers from MU and local secondary schools helped maintain the garden until 2009, when the St. Thomas More Newman Center Parish was asked to help. 

For the past decade, this garden has raised and donated an annual average of 1,700 pounds of organic produce to the Food Bank for Central and Northeast Missouri. Sustaining such a massive effort takes a lot of help! 

Volunteers under the leadership of Lily Chan, Susan DeMian, Brent Lowenberg, and Noah Heringman meet 1 to 2 times a week to prepare the beds, plant, weed and harvest. The variety of produce varies with the season, but includes lettuces, spinach, radishes, mustard greens, turnips, beets, chard, kale, snow peas, collards, carrots, potatoes, sweet potatoes, onions, herbs, beans, peas, peppers, tomatoes, okra, squash, cucumber, garlic, walnuts, chestnuts, persimmons, strawberries, grapes, apples, peaches, pears, and rhubarb! If I was a client of the Food Bank, I’d make sure to go on the days that Interfaith delivers!

volunteers crouched down in a row look up at the camera from where they are working at Interfaith Garden
a table set up outside holds fresh-picked produce and Interfaith garden is visible in the background
a table holds baskets of tomatoes, peppers, carrots and other vegetables and fruit


Volunteers come from all over Columbia, but regulars include congregants from Beth Shalom, Newman Center, and our Lady of Lourdes Catholic Church. Susan and Mike Devaney, Marilyn and Dennis Bettenhausen, and Laura Flacks-Narrol started tomato, pepper, and herb seeds and donated seedlings to the garden. A few MU College of Engineering honor societies, Student Council and Tolton High School seniors offer to volunteer in the garden one to two times a year as their service projects.

volunteers moving mulch at the Interfaith Garden
a group of 20 MU engineering students poses with hand tools in front of the garden
two volunteers from Tolton High School carry fencing material at Interfaith Garden


To achieve this level of success in Boone County takes more than hard work – it requires deer fencing! Interfaith was fenced many years ago with the financial help of the CGC, and plans are in the works to fence in the large orchard that surrounds the fenced vegetable garden. The local deer really like fresh fruit and frequently pick the fruit trees clean!

As the year winds down, please consider supporting Interfaith Garden and the Community Garden Coalition.

collage of photos of people using community gardens along with the logos for the Community Garden Coalition and CoMoGives and text saying "Help our gardens grow with your donation! Through Midnight, December 31."

Can You Help Support Community Gardens?

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collage of photos of people using community gardens along with the logos for the Community Garden Coalition and CoMoGives and text saying "Help our gardens grow with your donation! Through Midnight, December 31."

As we head into winter and our member gardens go largely dormant, we’re asking our supporters to consider making a donation to fund community gardening for 2025. You can show your support with a donation via CoMoGives, now through December 31. Here’s a note from one of our newer board members, Ginny Trauth.

Hello to all Community Garden Coalition supporters and friends!

My name is Ginny Trauth and as a fresher face to the CGC all-volunteer board I’d like to introduce myself and share what being a part of CGC means to me.

Three years ago, I stumbled into the world of community gardening when I moved to a new part of town and regularly drove past CGC’s Unite4Health garden. After some online searching I learned that that garden was part of CGC and even though I was a pretty inexperienced gardener, I decided to reach out and see if I could join.

With CGC’s assistance, through compost, water, seeds, straw, and tools, and my garden leader’s knowledge I was able to hit the ground running and quickly caught the gardening bug! Working on my garden, seeing it grow, and meeting new people in my community  became a real joy in my life. My community garden gave so much to me that I decided I needed to give back to it. First through financial donations and working on volunteer projects and, when the opportunity presented itself, as a board member.

During this time of year, when thankfulness and community are at the top of mind, I ask that you consider donating to CGC to help give back to and support an organization that gives to and supports so many!

Donations to CGC and to other wonderful community organizations can be made at through CoMoGives until December 31 at 11:59 PM.

I thank you and wish you a warm holiday season!
– Ginny Trauth

Gratitude for Community Gardening

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To all the community gardeners, leaders, volunteers and supporters out there: let’s give thanks for another gardening season!

As a gardener at Ninth St. community garden, I’m grateful for these awesome fat carrots I just harvested. And for the fellow gardeners I’ve enjoyed chatting with this year. And, as always, for my hard-working volunteer garden leader Barb, and the longtime support of landowners Mark and Carole Stevenson. 

On behalf of the whole CGC board, we are so grateful to all the landowners and garden leaders that allow the various gardens in our network to flourish.

If you were a gardener this year, please take some time now to be sure you’ve done the following things:

  1. Give us your feedback! Use this form to tell us how your gardening went this year.
  2. Tell your garden leader whether or not you want to keep using your garden through the winter or next spring.
  3. Clean up your garden plot. Ask your garden leader if you have questions about expectations for keeping your plot tidy over the winter. This is especially important if you are NOT going to use your plot again.

To all our supporters: we’re so grateful for you, too! And another opportunity to support community gardening is coming right up. We’ll be participating in the CoMoGives local giving campaign which starts on December 1. Donations made through CoMoGives form a huge part of our budget and therefore go to pay water bills, buy hoses and tools, mow the grass, purchase mulch and compost and other supplies that support community gardens.

We’re a small organization, so even a modest donation goes a long way! Watch for our emails and social media posts during the month of December for links to CoMoGives.

Unite4Health garden

Interfaith Garden

Unhappy Deer = Happier Gardeners!

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Deer depredation is becoming a big problem in many of our community gardens. Believe it or not, the white-tailed deer population for Missouri in 1925 was reported to be 400 animals. Recent estimates by the Missouri Department of Conservation put the current population at about 1.4 million. It’s not surprising that they are finding their way into our gardens in search of food!

The best deterrent for protecting gardens is deer fencing. Unfortunately, installing fencing is an expensive and laborious procedure that must be approved by the property owner and only one of the many gardens that we help (Claudell) is owned by the Community Garden Coalition.

We were successful in obtaining some funding through three grant proposals. In 2023, the Veterans United Foundation gave us $5,000 and two local Walmarts gave us $2,000 to use towards the installation of deer fencing. This was enough to begin fencing some of the gardens where we were receiving the most complaints. Cheryl Jensen and Eric Lorenz, the garden leaders at two city-owned gardens, Unite4Health and Britt-Hall, teamed up to determine the best materials and methods to protect those gardens. At Britt-Hall, Eric, with some help from Cheryl, installed all the fencing and made a lovely gate (see photo).

Eric Lorenz stands next to a garden gate saying Britt-Hall Community Garden
Britt-Hall community garden showing raised beds in progress and a deer fence
Left, Eric Lorenz at the Britt-Hall gate, photo credit Cheryl Jensen
Right, Britt-Hall garden in May with fencing, photo credit Kathy Doisy

Unfortunately, installation at Unite4Health was much more difficult because underneath the garden is part of the old Nowell’s grocery store parking lot! Things were looking grim for digging post holes until ForColumbia, a volunteer service group organized by several of Mid-Missouri’s christian churches under the leadership of Shelly Mayer (The Crossing), contacted us to see if there were any garden projects that they could volunteer for. When Cheryl contacted her and explained the situation, Shelly was not deterred. She met with us and brought along two of the most wonderful and determined lead volunteers, J.P. Watson and Tim Leibovich. J.P. and Tim worked for several days drilling anchor holes with a commercial auger so the posts could be secured in the hard subsurface.

Two volunteers run a large motorized auger to drill through the soil and buried pavement to make post holes for fencing at Unite4Health garden
J.P. Watson and Tim Leibovich with auger.  Photo Credit: Cheryl Jensen

Finally, on April 27, a large crew of hardworking, caring people arrived to install the fencing and repair raised beds. It was a nice day, and, due to the wonderful planning of J.P., Tim, and Cheryl, everything went smoothly. By the time they left, Unite4Health was fenced in — much to the chagrin of the local deer population! On top of all of this, ForColumbia paid for many additional expenses.

volunteers from ForColumbia 2024 pose with garden leader Cheryl next to some of the tall netted fencing meant to keep deer out of Unite4Health garden
J.P., Cheryl, Megan, Katie, and Tim. Photo Credit: J.P. Watson.

We are so thankful for the help of ForColumbia, the Veterans United Foundation and Walmart! Now, gardeners at these two gardens are able to grow more healthful produce, and they only have to share it with family and friends!

many volunteers assemble in front of lumber and other supplies to build the Unite4Health garden deer fence
volunteers work on installing a tall netted fence to prevent deer from entering the Unite4Health garden
volunteers from ForColumbia work on rebuilding some low raised bed structures at Unite4Health garden
ForColumbia volunteers at Unite4Health garden get instructions, photo credit Ginny Trauth
Volunteers working on the fence & repairing raised beds, photo credit Kathy Doisy

Free Native Plant Lecture Featuring Doug Tallamy

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There’s a great opportunity coming up to hear from a real expert on native plant ecology. Doug Tallamy, a leading proponent for native planting in the country, is coming to speak on Thursday, October 24 at 6:30 p.m. for free at MU’s Monsanto auditorium. This is event is brought to us by the Mizzou Botanic Garden as the 2024 Jacquelyn K. Jones Lecture.

Establishing native plantings in or near your community garden is a great way to benefit pollinators and the wider local environment. Doug Tallamy’s Homegrown National Park challenge encourages restoration of 20 million acres of privately owned lands with native plant species to attract co-evolved insect and animal species to mitigate ecosystems loss.

Learn more about the lecture and the Mizzou Botanic Garden on their site. And, if you can’t make the event, the Daniel Boone Regional Library is a great resource for Tallamy’s books.

Composting Workshops From the City of Columbia

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Compostables make up 34% of the materials that go into landfills. Learn the why, what and how of home composting. Attend a free workshop and start diverting kitchen scraps and yard waste while producing a nutrient rich soil amendment. Composting can greatly reduce a household’s waste and is a fun and rewarding step towards a more sustainable lifestyle. City of Columbia residents receive a Geobin composter at the workshop as supplies last.

The next workshop, Home Composting 101, is at the Britt-Hall Community Garden this Tuesday, August 14 at 6 p.m.!
Register with this link. (Walk-ins also welcome)

Other upcoming workshops:

Wednesday, September 4, 5:30-6:30 p.m. at the Capen Compost Demonstration Site
**NEW** Worms at Work: Vermicomposting 101

Wednesday, September 11, 5:30-6:30 p.m. at the Capen Compost Demonstration Site Bokashi Anaerobic Composting

A Delicious Way to Contribute to the Community Garden Coalition

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Look for Chef Gaby’s Specials for a Cause the next time you’re at Nourish Cafe & Market and order these nutritious meals to support the Community Garden Coalition this summer!

🌞Summer in Santorini Bowl: Escape to sun-drenched Santorini with each bite! Creamy sweet potato hummus,refreshing herbed cucumbers, and tender beef souvlaki meatballs bathed in roasted red pepper butter create a harmonious symphony of flavors. Topped with crumbly feta and delicate sunflower microgreens, this bowl is a taste of Greek paradise, leaving you feeling refreshed and ready for summer adventures. (Mostly local & organic, Nourish-approved: refined sugar-free, gluten-free, corn-free, soy-free, inflammatory oil-free!)

🥗Greek Goddess Salad: Indulge your senses and feel like a deity with the Greek Goddess Salad. A perfect balance of flavors and textures – peppery arugula, olive oil potatoes, juicy cherry tomatoes, creamy feta, and crunchy walnuts – all tied together with a star-of-the-show tapenade vinaigrette. Topped with a perfectly jammy egg, this salad is a celebration of fresh ingredients that will leave you nourished and ready to conquer your day. (Mostly local & organic, Nourish-approved: refined sugar-free, gluten-free, corn-free, soy-free, inflammatory oil-free!)

A portion of the proceeds from these featured recipes will be donated directly to the Community Garden Coalition at the end of the season. We are so appreciative of chef Gaby Weir and Nourish owner Kalle LeMone for this delicious promotion!

CGC Gardens Get a BIG Boost From ForColumbia Volunteers!

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April 27th was a great day for two of the gardens that operate under the Community Garden Coalition (CGC) umbrella! ForColumbia, a volunteer service group organized by several of Mid-Missouri’s Christian churches under the leadership of Shelly Mayer (The Crossing), showed up in big numbers at the Windsor Street Montessori School and Unite4Health Community Garden to get things done! 

Windsor Street Montessori needed the grounds cleaned up and made more child-friendly, while Unite4Health, a city-owned garden, desperately needed deer fencing. The deer fencing materials were purchased with grants to the CGC from the Veterans United Foundation and Walmart, along with additional funds from ForColumbia. Installing the deer fencing took months of preparation because the garden sits on top of the old Nowell’s grocery store parking lot! Two incredible volunteers from ForColumbia, Tim Leibovich and J.P. Watson made it happen against all odds. What a wonderful organization that benefits so many people and non-profits around Columbia!

Volunteers clear vegetation and move a pile of sand in front of the Windsor Street Montessori school.
ForColumbia volunteers at Windsor Street Montessori School.
Many volunteers from ForColumbia are putting up a tall fence of plastic netting at Unite4Health Community Garden.
Several volunteers from ForColumbia are helping put up a tall fence of plastic netting to prevent deer from getting into Unite4Health garden.
ForColumbia volunteers installing deer fencing at Unite4Health Community Garden. 

Alpine Shop Fundraiser

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For those of you who missed it, the Alpine Shop held an Al-Pint Fundraiser Night for the Community Garden Coalition on Friday, April 12. For a $10 donation you got a novelty pint cup and two pours from a wide selection of local Logboat beers. We also had lots of free seeds for those that were interested.

It was a lot of fun! We hope that if we are asked back you will stop by and show your support for community gardening! And thanks again to Emily, Jessica and the rest of the crew at the Alpine Shop for hosting us!

CGC board members and a donor pose with a vintage CGC sign at the Alpine Shop

Community Garden Coalition board members, Kathy, Ginny and Mallary joined by one of our donors.