Click to make your contribution to DUG’s capital campaign. We need your help to succeed!For the last 27 years, Denver Urban Gardens has come alongside residents to create beautiful, safe, and productive growing spaces throughout the urban neighborhoods in Metro Denver. Demand for our support has increased dramatically in recent years, and we receive inquiries for new gardens almost daily. Currently, there are nearly 20 well-developed community garden projects on the drawing board for 2012, and at least that many already on a waitlist for 2013.
In order to expand our capacity, DUG has implemented changes to operations to increase efficiency, maximize our reach, and more meaningfully involve gardeners, volunteers, and those we serve in the organization’s mission and vision. We are also working closely with our agency and non-profit partners to create more collaborative and sustainable systems of support for each new community garden. Support from local funders and community members like you will enable a move-in date in the spring of next year.
The Project
We are at a pivotal moment in our organization’s history and are poised to play a growing, long-term role in improving health and serving as a local and national model for community food security. To that end, we are working with Denver Housing Authority and a host of international development organizations, including iDE and Engineers Without Borders USA to create a nonprofit shared space at 33rd and Arapahoe in Denver’s historic Five Points Neighborhood. This new space will allow Denver Urban Gardens to continue to serve residents in the creation and ongoing support of food-producing community gardens, and to expand the reach of education and community support programs in response to increasing demand. A new facility will accommodate program expansions, a demonstration garden, educational facilities, and a distribution center for fresh produce and community garden resources.
Our new space will include:
- Additional workspace for staff, volunteers, and interns
- Demonstration kitchen for classes in healthy food preparation and preservation
- Walk-in cooler to support community garden produce donation programs and youth farmers’ markets
- Community garden construction and maintenance workshop
- Functioning neighborhood community garden with space for horticulture trainings
- Ample classroom space for DUG training programs such as Master Composter, Master Community Gardener, and Helping Kids Get Healthy
- Seasonal community farmers’ market that will allow us to partner with local organic farmers to offer low-cost produce to the neighborhood
Partnering with Denver Housing Authority will allow DUG and our partners to create an affordable space that is uniquely tailored to meet our programming needs, and sharing common spaces such as meeting rooms and classrooms will allow each organization involved in the project to lower admininstrative costs and increase overall efficiency.
The Building
The Horse Barn, built in 1893, is a historic 25,000 square foot building located in at 1031 33rd Street, in Denver’s historic Five Points neighborhood. It was originally one of the city’s three neighborhood horse barns during the era of horse drawn public transportation. The Denver Housing Authority purchased the building in 1992 as part of a HOPE VI community revitalization effort, with anticipation of replacing the building with residential units as the neighborhood continued to grow. DHA and the community soon realized the profound historic significance of the building and set forth a strong commitment to help preserve the building’s history through improvements and rehabilitation rather than demolition. This included securing a Denver Landmark Preservation designation for the front façade of the building along 33rd Street. DHA views the Horse Barn building as an opportunity to create a local and regional amenity that brings greater mixed-use vibrancy and diversity to the neighborhood.
The historic Horse Barn:
The Horse Barn today:
The Horse Barn as a nonprofit shared space, Spring 2013:
Interior layout:
Interior layout showing designated tenant workspaces. The lower left bay (red) indicates DUG’s workspace, including walk-in cooler with external entrance, storage space for seeds and program materials, and market space. The upper left bay (green) indicates Engineers Without Bordersʼ workspace, and the upper right bay indicates iDEʼs workspace. Nearly 30 international development nonprofits will share workspace in the lower right bay, and in other designated spaces in the upper center bay.
Interior layout showing common and collaborative spaces. The lower level shows a large, open training space that includes a demonstration kitchen, and can be configured to host lectures, cooking demonstrations, or educational programs for more than 100. The smaller spaces are small conference rooms or quiet workspaces. The upper level shows a large conference room that can accommodate up to 50 for trainings or lectures, and multiple medium- and small-sized conference and meeting rooms. All building tenants will have access to all collaborative spaces, and training and meeting rooms will also be open for community members to reserve for neighborhood meetings or community trainings.
For Denver Urban Gardens, this shared space will create valuable opportunities to collaborate on community education programs, innovative solutions to food insecurity, strategies for community empowerment, and youth development and internship programs to serve Metro Denver and Colorado as a whole. Additionally, this new facility will allow Denver Urban Gardens to harness the significant momentum that has built around community gardens and our mission. Moving to a more accessible and well equipped facility will enable DUG to markedly improve the programs and services that we offer the metro area community, at a time when demand for our assistance is increasing dramatically.
Community Support
Community support will be crucial to the success of this project. Denver Urban Gardens has already received grant support for this project from The Anschutz Foundation and other local funders, and now we need your help to make this vision a reality. Denver Urban Gardens must raise a total of $325,000 to finish out this new space, and that means we need each and every person that believes in our mission of creating access to healthy food and community building to give what they can.
Through our GivingFirst page, you are able to make a tax-deductible donation to our capital project, with 100% of your contribution going straight to this project. Zero credit fees, zero administration costs. If you have already given this year, or plan to give later in the year, please consider giving an additional one-time gift to help us meet this goal.
To give to the Denver Urban Gardens capital campaign online:
Visit www.givingfirst.org/DUG, and select Capital in the designation field.
To give by check:
Send check made out to Denver Urban Gardens to:
DUG
3377 Blake Street, Suite 113
Denver, CO 80205
with “Capital” on the memo line.
If you have any questions about this project, or want to explore sponsorship opportunities, please contact Abbie Harris at dirt@dug.org or 303.292.9900.
Thank you for your support!
Click here to return to the Spring 2012 edition of The Underground News.
