Ypsilanti-based nonprofit Growing Hope's new Community Garden Grants program will offer grants ranging from $200 to $1,000 for garden projects that serve under-resourced communities in the Ypsi area. Growing Hope expects to award five to eight grants, using funds from Washtenaw County.

Growing Hope Executive Director Julius Buzzard says the organization recently extended the grant application deadline from July 19 to Aug. 1, with winners to be announced Aug. 16.

Grant applications will be evaluated based on feasibility of the suggested project, financial need, location, and demographics. Growing Hope will give priority to projects based in low-income and low-access areas, as well as projects serving working-class and/or BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and people of color) communities. Growing Hope will provide funds and possibly advice, but not staffing or volunteers.

Applicants need not have a 501(c)(3) nonprofit, Buzzard says. Awards will go to gardens as a whole, not individual gardeners, and school gardens don't qualify for this project. Otherwise, Buzzard says the grant committee is trying to keep the criteria broad so that communities can ask for whatever they most need, rather than what Growing Hope might suggest for them.

"What is it that you need to activate your growing space? That's going to look different from garden to garden," Buzzard says. "We want to support anyone growing in and for the Ypsilanti community."

He says applicants can request funds for anything from compost to raised beds to a picnic table or fencing to keep out animals and pets.

"In some cases, if you put up a fence at the first of the season, it can change the whole trajectory of a community garden," he says.

Interested parties can apply by filling out a short Google Form. Buzzard says anyone with technology difficulties can apply in person or by phone at (734) 786-8401.

"We're trying to keep it as low-barrier as possible and use it as an opportunity to invest in community growers," Buzzard says.

Sarah Rigg is a freelance writer and editor in Ypsilanti Township and the project manager of On the Ground Ypsilanti. She joined Concentrate as a news writer in early 2017 and is an occasional contributor to other Issue Media Group publications. You may reach her at sarahrigg1@gmail.com.

Photo courtesy of Growing Hope.