Food Well Alliance

Many growing spaces help fill a void where access to fresh, healthy food is limited. For Mrs. K, growing food has always been about helping her community make healthier choices. But at Astro-Fain, one essential resource was missing: water. Without access to city water, it was difficult to keep the garden growing. Mrs. K was determined to find a solution. With a Community Garden Grant from Food Well, she transformed existing pergolas into rainwater catchment systems that provided a more reliable way to water plants.

Michael Gault (above), owner of Smyly Farm in Palmetto, runs one of Georgia’s few certified organic pasture-raised egg farms. He grew his flock from 40 chickens to 2,000. A Farm Forward Grant from Food Well helped to purchase some of those hens and build a shed to hold a new walk-in cooler to store eggs. “The biggest thing I’d have to say to anybody willing to help regenerative agriculture – because we can’t do it alone as a farmer – is that it takes people seeing what we’re doing and believing in what we’re doing.” Michael says one of the only ways that grassroots operations like his survive is through support like he's received from Food Well. “Otherwise, we would be a hobby farm. We would not be able to be at the capacity we’re at with the farm today.”