During the World Wars, the answer to our country’s food shortages and low morale was the Victory Garden: small gardens grown in backyards and city lots that enabled any one person to feed their family and their community. They were a real, tangible way to contribute.
Now a days we don’t worry so much about food shortage, and while it’s certainly arguable that many people still don’t have access to enough healthy food, I’d argue that we have an even more critical shortage these days: connection. Real, meaningful connection.
Our world is moving faster than it ever has, with more ways for us to connect than ever before. We’ve all got hundreds of friends online and are a member of more online groups than we can count. And yet we’re more disconnected than we’ve ever been. While social media is powerful tool, it isn’t as powerful as real connections; the kind that help us relate and interact with communities, neighbors, friends and even family.
We believe the answer to our current deficit is still found in a backyard garden. What would happen if we each grew a few flowers, simply for the purpose of sharing with others? What if we literally grew connection in our communities by walking across the street or down to the local retirement center to hand a neighbor a bunch of flowers? Growing up, my dad always told us, “Little by little, we go far.” (He still reminds me of that
How it started
As long as we’ve been growing flowers, we’ve enjoyed gifting and sharing them. But you could say the Growing Kindness project started with a problem. We were in our first season growing cut flowers for market and we had a problem: we’d invested in hundreds of dahlia plants and had way more flowers than we could sell. So we started sharing them in our community, by the bouquet, bucketful and even wagon-full at times. We left them on bus station benches, doctor’s office counters and libraries. We visited long term care and retirement homes. No matter where or how we shared flowers the results were always the same: always smiles. And hugs, conversation and cheer.
We were hooked. The more we grew and gave, the more we began to see that not only could we get flowers into the hands of those who needed them, we were in a unique position to empower others in our community to do the same. So last spring we opened our farm and gave away hundreds of dahlia tubers to kind-hearted, caring souls who wanted to join us in #growingkindness in our communities, one bloom, bunch or bouquet at a time.
The response was nothing short of inspiring. It was a ripple effect and inspired us to find ways to do more. This year, we’ve found even more ways to support and involve even more people, near and far, in growing and sharing flowers in their communities. I’m faced with a daunting task.) What if stem by stem, we had the chance to make a difference in others’ lives? To grow kindness and connection? That’s exactly what we’ve set out to accomplish with the Growing Kindness Project.
Who can join?
All it takes is a little dirt and a big heart to make a difference. Whether you’re an apartment dweller with a single flower pot, a scout troop with an empty lot or a flower farmer with surplus blooms, we are here to support and guide anyone who would like to make a difference through flowers in their community.
We’d love nothing more than to link arms with YOU and help this project spread to your community!
Can you just imagine how many lives we could touch when we each step out bravely in kindness? This truly is a humble, grass roots project. There is nothing new or fancy about it. The idea is simple: grow some flowers then share them with someone you know needs some extra kindness. That’s it. That’s Growing Kindness.
You certainly don’t need to be on a team to grow a garden and share flowers. But we also know that everything is better together. When you’re a member of the team, we’re here helping you with practical gardening tips and advice. We’ll also be cheering for you helping you stay inspired and encouraged to get out in your community and sprinkle kindness like confetti.
Registration for Growing Kindness Ambassadors and Growing Kindness Gardeners will be opening in January. We hope you’ll join us in your corner of the world. Together, we can do so much.
