Mission

Victory Garden Initiative builds communities that grow their own food to create a community-led, socially just, environmentally sustainable, nutritious food system for all.

What We Do

We are a nonprofit based in the Harambee neighborhood of Milwaukee. We work to achieve our mission through a variety of programs centered around creating urban infrastructure for agriculture and providing hands on garden and nutrition education to all.

Our flagship program is the annual Great Milwaukee Victory Garden Blitz where we install 500 raised garden beds across Milwaukee County every spring. These go into backyards, schools, places of worship, businesses, apartment complexes, and more, providing the means to grow food to individuals and increasing individual level and community level food sovereignty. Each year, we install around 50% of these gardens at a reduced rate in low-income neighborhoods. We have also worked to train 3 other nonprofits in Wisconsin, Kentucky, and California to Blitz through our Blitz Your Town program, turning this into a national movement once again.

Our other programs include operating an Urban Farm Campus complete with a 1.5 acre urban farm, community garden, kids garden, beehives, and a Farmhouse complete with office space, a classroom, and community kitchen. We run various youth education camps and after school clubs as well as our Move Grass Class series for adults.

Finally, we run a Food Leader Apprenticeship program where we empower community members to become food system advocates in their community. They were side-by-side with VGI staff and other community leaders to learn about food system and social justice issues, gardening, nutrition, cooking, preserving food, and community organizing. Through completion of this program, we equip community members with the skills needed to start their own food justice projects in their own communities.