Growing Empowerment hosts two planting workshops Saturday in Aspen, Basalt
Kim Doyle Willie/Courtesy photo
Seeds aren’t the only thing that grows over time – so are intentions, and no one quite perhaps knows that better than Growing Empowerment founder Kim Doyle Willie.
Growing Empowerment based in El Jebel is a community organization dedicated to empowering valley residents through education, sustainable projects, and gardens for hunger relief within Roaring Fork communities.
While she has always had a passion for growing vegetables, her journey to starting the organization began differently than most might expect. Rather than starting with vegetables, her path began with a hotdog – an Oscar Meyer hotdog to be exact.
Willie won $5,000 through a Good Mood Mission contest with Oscar Myer and used the funds to launch her organization. She said her goal was simple: to prove to local food pantries that they should start offering fresh produce because, at the time, none of them were.
“We were in the midst of the recession right then, and people were just craving fresh produce, and I had been growing my own gardens since 2007 and feeding my neighborhood,” she said. “We took the Wienermobile to the Carbondale food pantry and the Glenwood Springs Food Pantry at Catholic Charities and served food, and it worked. As soon as the food came in, it was gone. It was just amazing.”
From that day forward, you could say things have only grown to be more successful for Willie.
She would eventually branch out to hosting various workshops, which is exactly what she’ll be doing this Saturday at two separate locations. The first will be at the Pitkin County Library in Aspen from 10 a.m. to noon, and the second workshop of the day will be at the Basalt Regional Library from 2-4 p.m.
In addition to receiving a brief education on seeds, participants will learn the process of sorting and repackaging seeds that will then be distributed to recipients who depend on LIFT-UP food pantries in the valley. Free organic heirloom seeds and science-based informational handouts will be available for everyone in attendance.
Participants will also learn several methods of planting seeds before planting trays of tomatoes and peppers that will be grown for distribution to LIFT-UP pantries along with several programs and community gardens that grow food for hunger relief throughout Pitkin, Eagle, and Garfield counties.
“After the seeds are planted, I’ll take them home to be grown to about three inches in height, and then I’m going into schools that have greenhouses around Basalt and Carbondale,” Willie said. “We’re going to transplant them, and they’ll be cared for at those schools in their greenhouses.”
She dedicated much of her time as a volunteer teacher with Yampah Mountain High School from 2013 to 2017 where she taught gardening and helped students grow and distribute plants for those less fortunate. Last year alone, she said she grew 9,000 plants that were distributed all throughout the valley and beyond, within schools and 4-H clubs from Aspen to Parachute and even Meeker.
She said that one of the most important points she tries to emphasize from the classroom to the general public is that, while donating food during the holidays is important, the worst time for hunger in the year are actually the summer months when school is out and kids aren’t able to rely on reduced lunches.
“We don’t have big feeding programs for kids around here,” she said. “We’ve got some, and it’s improving. But I really want to call attention to get people to know if they can grow extra, let’s get that done.”
As a resident of the Aspen area for roughly 47 years, Willie certainly has accomplished a lot with her time and her many gardens. Though it’s a long list of achievements, when asked if there’s one thing in particular she’s most proud of, her answer is planted in the very organization’s name she founded: Growing Empowerment.
“I’m most proud of all the kids and young adults that we taught gardening because I’ve seen it come full circle on some things,” she said. “Just seeing how we’ve empowered people or even hearing from people on the Facebook page or that call or that I run into in a grocery store that say, ‘Oh, I love those seeds,’ or ‘I love those plants.’ When I was at Yampah, we used to grow our own plants and have a plant sale the day before Mother’s day every year, and the kids would sell the plants and watching the pride and accomplishment they had was always really great.”
And she’s far from done.
In addition to launching a brand new Youtube channel in the coming weeks, you can also look forward to catching Willie’s new podcast with Colorado State University Extension Agent Dani Wesolowski in Garfield County called the High Altitude Gardner. To learn more about the show and to stay up to date with Growing Empowerment, be sure to visit facebook.com/GrowingEmpowerment.
To reach Jonson Kuhn, email him at jkuhn@aspentimes.com.
Growing Empowerment hosts two planting workshops Saturday in Aspen, Basalt
Seeds aren’t the only thing that grows over time, so are intentions, and no one quite perhaps knows that better than Growing Empowerment founder Kim Doyle Willie.
