Our Mission: To educate and assist Central Texans in growing organic food gardens

Our Vision: That Central Texans have nutritious, affordable food grown in ways that conserve natural resources, promote self-reliance, and strengthen communities.

Green Corn Project (GCP) is a volunteer-driven 501(c)3 nonprofit organization. Since 1998, GCP has built more than 130 gardens in Austin's underserved neighborhoods. We teach effective techniques for growing food at home naturally, while making maximum use of land, water, and energy. The whole community benefits when gardeners share their new skills and excess harvest with others.

GCP serves people with limited access to nutritious, affordable food by partnering with them to build their own gardens at homes, schools, and community centers. GCP also educates garden recipients, volunteers, and community members about the techniques and benefits of organic gardening through skills workshops, presentations, and community events.

GCP accomplishes its mission through generous contributions from businesses and individuals, by partnering with community organizations and city agencies, and with the hands-on labor of many dedicated volunteers.

We welcome requests for short presentations about our work from your group or business.

Participate!

GCP would love to have you join us as a volunteer. Please contact us if you have additional questions. Learn how you can help.

Our Method

In only 100 square feet and in less than 20 minutes each day, a person can grow enough vegetables and soft fruits in our climate to meet the needs of one adult throughout the year. For a family, this amount of fresh food can mean increased nutrition and other benefits that a healthy diet provides. As people gain knowledge through growing biointensively, they can expand their growing area to include grains, root crops (such as potatoes), and food for market.

GCP would like to give as many people as possible the opportunity to grow nutritious food right where they live. We believe doing so increases self-reliance, helps meet the needs of less fortunate families, promotes sustainable use of resources, and creates a greater connection to the land.

A Powerful Hunger

In Austin, eating well can be an ongoing challenge for people who have limited income, serious health conditions, or physical limitations due to aging or disability. A 1998 Community Action Network report counted 9,000 low-income Austinites who seek food daily from emergency sources such as food banks. East Austin's Seton Clinic reported a few years ago that 40 percent of its patient diagnoses are strongly influenced by inadequate diets.

In 1999, more than 87,000 Travis County residents lived below the poverty level. At least twice that many have been defined as "working poor." For a variety of reasons, these people do not always spend their food budgets in the most efficient way. Not everyone in Austin has a grocery store nearby and transportation to get there. According to a 1995 report, "Access Denied," many low-income shoppers rely on expensive corner convenience stores for food when they cannot get to a supermarket. Wholesale grocery companies rarely serve these smaller stores, which forces owners to charge higher prices and offer limited selection.

Helping People

Home gardens give people direct access to nutritious, seasonal food that is affordable and safe. GCP provides the instruction and needed materials for growing an organic garden. For our gardeners, GCP supplies starter compost, seeds and seedlings, as well as tools and other materials for people who need them. In addition to instructing home gardeners, we train volunteers to assist with food gardens located at the homes of elders and disabled folks. We also hold workshops to teach the biointensive method--the most sustainable way we know to grow food--to even more Central Texans.

Helping the Environment

Because GCP teaches sustainable biointensive growing, people learn to “grow” soil. The main aspects of biointensive gardening are:

• Double-dug raised beds: deep soil preparation allows plant roots to penetrate deeply, providing more nutrients and water to the plant.
• Composting: making a healthy, diverse compost fertilizer from crop residues.
• Intensive planting: placing plants in an offset, hexagonal pattern that makes the most of space and enhances plant growth and moisture retention.
• Companion planting: some plants do best when grown around certain other plants.

• Carbon farming: growing biomass (plant matter) on-site to produce enough material for making compost.
• Calorie farming: growing food that efficiently provides the most amount of calories per square foot of growing area.
• Use of open-pollinated seeds: learning to use and harvest seeds, and developing strains of plants specifically adapted to a person’s growing area and climate.
• * Using all of the components together – the whole system: the sum of the method is far greater than its parts. By using some of these techniques alone, great damage to the soil can occur. When used together, the garden becomes its most productive, and garden and human health is enhanced in a truly sustainable way.

Biointensive gardening conserves water, uses about one quarter of the land space, and requires 99 percent less energy than conventional growing methods.