History of the Gardens:

The original food bank garden, located at the Port Townsend Mountain View Commons started in the spring of 2012 and was assisted by a grant from the Jefferson County Master Gardeners Foundation and a generous donation from the Jefferson County Food Bank Association to construct a hoop house for tomato production.

We harvested and delivered 800 lbs of fresh produce in 2012, and over 3,000 lbs in 2013!  We labeled 2014 “The Year to Grow Your Own Food” and surpassed our previous success by operating more efficiently from three locations; Mountain View Food Bank Garden, High School Food Bank Garden and the Quimper Grange Food Bank Garden.

As we surpassed the six year mark of this organization’s history in 2018, we have donated over 20,000 lbs of produce to the people of Jefferson County by 3 gardens.

Fast forward to 2018.

3 new gardens had been added.

The Foodbank Farm and Gardens had been incorporated as a 501C3 non-profit for several years. The group had formal Memorandum Of Understandings (MOUs) with landowners. It had procured insurance. It had developed a webpage and a facebook page. In 2018, six gardens produced nearly 8,000 pounds of fresh, organically grown food for 2 foodbanks: Port Townsend and Tri-Area which had recently moved to a new, permanent location. Three team members joined the  Jefferson County Local Food Systems Council.

That amount of food in 2018 was nearly half the amount grown in the first six years!

New member farmers are working to produce additional food for Quilcene, which would be the third of the four foodbanks in the loop. So much more to look forward to in the upcoming years!