Supporters of Sitka’s community garden project at the top of Jarvis Street can help the project along by donating to a new SeedMoney.org fundraising campaign that launched on Friday, Nov. 15. Donors have 30 days, until Dec. 15, to help one or more of 432 food garden projects around the world fund themselves.

“The goal is $2,500 which will cover about half of the cost of an engineered drainage plan, a pre-development requirement that will have to be met before we’ll be able to start clearing the site,” project manager Joel Hanson said.

The Jarvis Street community garden project was proposed by Transition Sitka and the Sitka Local Foods Network, and it will fill a glaring need in this town since the Blatchley Community Garden was closed in 2016. This project will build a new half-acre community garden at the top of Jarvis Street, near where the Sitka Homeless Coalition is building a tiny home neighborhood for unhoused Sitkans. This is the only Alaska project in this year’s #SeedMoneyChallenge.

“After more than a year of planning, we are close to securing a long-term land lease for a half-acre community garden. Construction will begin in 2025,” Hanson said.

The Jarvis Street Community Garden will have room for 45 standard 10-foot-by-20-foot plots, plus a few smaller growing beds along the perimeter fence for cultivating tall or trellised plants like snap peas.

In addition to Transition Sitka keeping all of the money raised during the contest, there are bonus grants for projects that raise more money. Any funds raised beyond what is needed for the drainage plan will be held and used for construction of the garden.

Please support our garden by going to this link, https://donate.seedmoney.org/10864/jarvis-street-community-garden, and completing the donation process. We had a similar #SeedMoneyChallenge in 2023 for a site survey, raising $2,410 with a goal of $1,500. Donations are tax deductible.

For more information, go to https://transitionsitka.org/projects/sitka-food/sitka-community-gardens/ or call project coordinator Joel Hanson at 907-747-9834.