The Cullowhee Community Garden was identified by the Healthy Eating and Physical Activity Action Team as a program that, when combined with other actions in our community, has a reasonable chance of making a difference in healthy food consumption as well as weight status in our community. The audience for this strategy is the community at large. This strategy aims to make a difference at the individual level-- increasing knowledge and influence on individual attitudes and beliefs towards health. Implementation will take place community-wide in Jackson County.

The Cullowhee Community Garden is a project of the Jackson County Department of Public Health. The garden provides space, tools, and materials for community members to grow produce organically. Each gardener agrees to donate one half of the produce grown in their plot to help our community food relief programs. There is no monetary fee for joining the garden, only the 50% donation.

The partners for this Cullowhee Community Garden include:

This table can be used for project management to track activities related to your project implementation, data collection/ monitoring, trainings and communications.  If you already have a preferred method of project management/ tracking, then you do not need to use this table, however, you will need to write a description of your implementation and training activities in this section to meet accreditation requirements.

Evaluation Plan:

We plan to evaluate the impact of [insert program type] through the use of Results-Based Accountability^TM to monitor specific performance measures. We will be monitoring How Much, How Well and/or Better Off Performance Measures. The Performance Accountability Worksheet is a guide to program performance monitoring and improvement efforts. It will help you in clarifying program customers, developing performance measures, and identifying "headline" measures. Our evaluation activities will be tracked in the Work Plan table, above. 

If you do not use the activity tracking table in the Work Plan section, you will need to add a written description of your plan to collect, monitor and respond to changes in your performance measures in this section.

Sustainability Plan:

The following is our sustainability plan for [insert program type]: 

• Sustainability Component [insert number if applicable, e.g. 1, 2, 3]:
  • Briefly describe how you will plan to achieve this component of your sustainability plan.

Examples of sustainability plan include: using program performance measures to ensure ongoing effectiveness and demonstrate successes to funders and other key stakeholders, communicating and engaging diverse community leaders and organizations, identifying champions who strongly support the program, establishing a consistent financial base for the program, providing adequate staffing, increasing community awareness on the issue and demonstrating the value of the program to the public, etc.

2018 Updates

Community Outreach:

• Awarded the Western Carolina University Community Partner of the Year award
• Hosted first annual Children's Day in the Garden
• Group seed order at the Jackson County Farmer's Market
• Participated in Gardens That Give Service 
• Helped host seed exchange at the Jackson County Farmer's Market
• Hosted numerous in-garden tours, and facilitated talks at Western Carolina University and the Jackson County Public Library

2017 Updates

Workshops:

• WCU Biology Class - Garden tour & education

Community Outreach:

• Group Seed Order at the Jackson County Farmers Market
• WCU Service Learning Fair
• Assisted with Nutrition & Dietetics program at WCU to provide garden spaces and education at a local Head Start child care center. 
• Co-hosted a seed swap event with the Southern Seed Legacy & WCU Anthropology Dept
• Adopt a Pot fundraiser with WCU for children's space in the Garden
• HIGHTS honey bee project - honey bee hive is now set up and operating. The honeybees are healthy and are already working at making honey, and helping with pollination in the garden.
• 5 bee hotels installed
• Presentation to Otto Community Development Organization on community gardening
• Presentation at JCPL on community gardening
• 4/5 water tank stands have been built in the garden

Volunteers:

• So far, the CCG has seen 415 individual volunteers throughout 2017 

2016 Updates

During 2016, The Cullowhee Community Garden hosted a series of educational workshops. Topics included fruit tree pruning and handling pests, weeds, and diseases in an organic garden. The Garden also hosted a seed swap and seed saving event at the Farmer's Market.

Volunteers:

The Garden had a total of 537 individual volunteers throughout 2016 – that is over $35,000 worth of in-kind donations of time to the Garden.

Additional Information: 

The CCG received a Service Learning Award for partnership with Western Carolina University