Join us this Sunday, May 31st, to plant Darien's first-ever Community Garden Patch!

This summer we plan to tackle the issue of hunger and food insecurity here in our community, from the ground up, with our Sunny Patch Project!

We know, it’s summer - we’re supposed to kick back and relax but it’s also a scary time for hundreds of students and their families, many of our neighbors, as school wraps up for a few months and their access to daily nutrition, with breakfast and lunch, goes away and becomes more challenging.

We know that the number of low-income families and students qualifying for free/reduced lunches has doubled in just five years. Over 43% of students in Darien qualify and the numbers spike to nearly 65% in communities to our east and west! Families struggling to access food, especially garden fresh options, is a very real issue that we’re hoping to address through our summer project.

The garden yields from our Sunny Patch Project container patches will be made available to select families in our community throughout the coming months and into the final fall harvest! We will only be able to directly assist a small number of families this first season but we’re hoping that with the community’s involvement, we’ll be able to assist many more of our neighbors!

Everyone is invited to join us in our pilot garden patch this summer - membership in our Sunny Patch is limited for this first season and patches are going fast! Our pilot patch will have a minimum of 30 containers and we will consider adding more if the interest is high and space is available.

No prior gardening experience is necessary - membership includes all you’ll need but you’re welcome to bring your own veggies or herbs to your patch too!

There will be many ways for you to get involved in our summer of fun - we’ll host workshops and programs throughout the summer months, some dedicated to issues related to nutrition and social services, etc. We’ll also be hosting a number of film screenings or Garden Takes - the first documentary screening will be of the film Food Patriots and we’ll be running that this Sunday, May 31st during our Kick-off Planting session!

To learn more about this exciting project, visit: http://www.goodworxinc.org

You’ll be able to explore the levels of membership in our Sunny Patch and see what’s right for you.

Again, we’ll be kicking off our summer long project this Sunday, May 31st at Safety Village of Darien (7400 Cass Avenue, Darien,IL). We plan to start at 9:00 a.m. - we’ll spend a couple of hours working to plant some of our initial containers - again, Patches can be reserved in advance by visiting our Sunny Patch Project website: http://bit.ly/1FPQ3Lg

Contact Good Worx Inc. if you have any questions about our summer project - email: info@sunnypatchproject.org or call (630)272-0915.

We look forward to seeing many of you in the Sunny Patch this summer!