Stepping Stones Garden

	Help the homeless, buy their vegetables.
	Where is the garden located? Here is a map and directions.
	Program provides:
	Organic food for the community. Corn, raspberries, strawberries, peppers, tomatoes, marigolds, eggplant, lemon basil, garlic, onions, sunflowers, radishes, squash, pumpkins, etc. have been planted.
	Wages for the homeless working in the garden

The Stepping Stones program enables the homeless to grow food and earn a wage while providing the community with organic vegetables (the project received certification as an organic garden from the Colorado Department of Agriculture in April 2001).

“We sell vegetables at market rate to help pay the salaries of the people working the garden. It not only does a healing process of connecting them with their body and the soil—but it also provides an income” said project director, Dave Ward.

With land donated by the Broomfield Presbyterian church, a $3600 grant from the Spirit of Christ Catholic Community in Arvada, the use of a tractor donated by a local farmer, $1000 donation in seeds, and a 12 seat van donated by NICE’s board chairman, Ward hopes to pay workers $8/hr and grow some delicious vegetables. He has a volunteer base of about 22 for the garden.

Patterned after the highly successful Homeless Garden Project started in 1990, Stepping Stones hopes to attract more help from local businesses and area groups in 2002.

“Our goal at NICE is initiatives to help the homeless and their recovery. We want them to pick up on their own initiative. We want to build up an organization that supports them in their labor and in the process helps them to know they are self-sufficient. If they can be self-sufficient, that’s a huge support for their recovery."

Note: An article about the Stepping Stones program first appeared in The Daily Camera on April 15, 2001.