Join Toledo GROWs at the Crosby Festival for the Arts at the Toledo Botanical Gardens June 28-30, 2024. Explore the beauty of the Toledo Botanical Gardens during this three-day, highly recognized art show. Celebrating 58 years, the event is a blend of nature, art, and community featuring unique artwork, local food, and live music.
Tickets are available online at https://toledogrows.ticketspice.com/cfa-2024.
Toledo GROWs has been a local leader in urban agriculture since 1996 located at 900 Oneida Street, Toledo, Ohio 43608. Through community building and longstanding partnerships, it has a network of growers from over 120 community gardens. Their mission seeks to remove barriers by empowering people to grow healthy food for themselves and their community. While programs and resources are open to all ages, Toledo GROWs actively engages young people to nurture the joy of growing and gardening.
Access to seeds, supplies, and information translates into informed communities so individuals can secure ownership over their food sources, eliminate neighborhood blight, and build community. For decades, Toledo GROWs has offered the necessary tools and support to create common ground among individuals, neighborhoods, and organizations. Fostering community spaces transforms residents into neighbors and vacant lots into flourishing community spaces.
For Toledo GROWs the future is ripe with possibilities to establish and grow partnerships, community spaces, and programs. Yvonne Dubielak, Executive Director of Toledo GROWs, reminds us, “If you have the land and the interest, we can help remove a majority of the barriers that limit access to establishing a thriving community garden. Building community around food is at the core of our mission.”
“Building community partnerships” is a core value for Toledo Grows said Dubielak and for her team to expand their partnerships and diversify their network of community connections. For example, the Sofia Quintero Art and Cultural Center, SQACC, is no stranger to Toledo Grows. SQACC is a beacon of pride and community services for South Toledo,primarily for Latino residents in the neighborhood and throughout the city. In the very early stages of SQACC’s community garden initiatives having a professionally trained horticulturist, seed sharing with Toledo Grows and other resources was very helpful with revitalizing empty properties into fruit, habitat, pollinator, and flower community gardens near and around Crittenden Avenue and Walbridge Avenue off of Broadway Street. As a passionate Director of Toledo Grows, Yvonne is also looking for innovative ways to spark and expand more diverse partnerships with community gardening including ways to attract new attendees to the Crosby Festival for the Arts at the Toledo Botanical Gardens.