Our Roots
ABOUT GROW
Started in 2015, Grow:Johnson County is a six acre farm located on the Johnson County Historic Poor Farm in Iowa City, Iowa. Grow was created to fill the need for access to fresh and local fruits and vegetables, particularly in food pantries where much of the food readily provided is non perishable.
We train growers through hands-on farming experiences for all ages and backgrounds. All the produce grown on the farm is distributed to local food pantries. Each year we produce over 40,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables for our partners. Since the program began, Grow has donated over 200,000 pounds of fresh produce to food pantries throughout Johnson County.
Learn more about our impact in our 2023 Annual Report, 2022 Annual Report, our 2021 Annual Report.
THE TEAM
Our dedicated team is made up of staff, volunteers, and seasonal apprentices . These are the folks that do the planting, weeding, growing, and harvesting.
OUR PARTNERS
We produce the food at the farm, but our partners are the ones getting it to those who need it. We work with 17 partner agencies across the county who do the work every day to serve our community. Our distribution partner, Table to Table, makes sure that the food gets to these agencies. The majority of the food grown on the farm reaches our partners within five hours of being harvested.
OUR SPONSORS
Grow has the generous support from local government, businesses, foundations, and individual donors. Their support has been the driving-force of all the work done on the farm.