Food Security Ukraine Project #55771

Resiliency Gardens for Ukrainian Refugees and IDPs

by Seed Programs International

Project Report | Mar 10, 2023
Healing Jars to Unite Ukrainians

By Robyn Love | Project Leader

Picking Viburnum Berries

Greetings from SPI!

SPI is partnering with Support to Ukraine’s Reforms for Governance (SURGe) for their Victory Gardens initiative in Ukraine. As we wait for the air to warm and snow to melt, students at a school in Kyiv are making “healing jars” of viburnum jam to lift the spirits of the students and teachers, unite their community, and support their military. The students picked viburnum berries from fruit trees and bushes near their school and made jam for the air defense forces that are defending Kyiv airspace. Viburnum, also called Kalyna, is a woody plant that grows bright red berries. The plant is a national symbol of Ukraine and symbolizes courage, unity, love, beauty, and life. The berries also provide health benefits as an antioxidant that reduces blood pressure and has anti-inflammatory qualities.

The students in the school’s horticulture program worked together to harvest the berries, cook the jam, and put the jam in jars for the air defense forces. The students also created drawings and wrote messages of hope to accompany the healing jars. The program has helped improve the morale of the students and teachers involved, while also uniting the community struggling during this difficult time.

This program is part of a larger Victory Gardens initiative to encourage residents to use their available land to grow food for Ukrainians. Victory Gardens have a long global history, with gardens being planted in the US, Canada, UK, Australia, and Germany during World Wars I and II. The initiatives aim to prevent food insecurity and create a morale booster for communities experiencing crisis. SPI and SURGe are partnering for this initiative to also create a community garden in Volochysk and school gardens at schools in Kyiv, Kamyanets-Podilskyi, and Zorivka. Vegetables will be planted in the spring.

Thank you for supporting this work! We are fast approaching the planting season, so please stay tuned for updates about these programs and others in our next report. If you have any questions or want to learn more, then please reach out. We would love to hear from you.

Making Viburnum Jam

Messages of Hope

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Nov 14, 2022
Resiliency Gardens in Poland and Ukraine

By Robyn Love | Project Leader

Greetings from SPI!

I am excited to share with you some updates about our programs in Poland and Ukraine. Sadly, Russian hostilities continue in Ukraine, causing close to 1.4 million Ukrainians to seek refuge in Poland and 7 million Ukrainians to be internally displaced and away from their home within Ukraine. Seed Programs International is currently working with organizations in Poland and Ukraine to create gardening programs to increase food supply and create place-connection during a time of crisis.

Our Resiliency Gardens program was created to support schools in Poland that have welcomed Ukrainian refugees into their communities. We are currently supporting 7 schools in Poland with the Resiliency Gardens program. The gardening programs are underway for this current school year and the students are excited to learn about plants, soil, and gardening. Materials are being purchased to create the gardens and plans are being created for the spring planting season. Programs range from primary school through high school and are supported with educational materials from KidsGardening.org and Trips beyond the classroom, a Poland based outdoor education organization. The students are excited to be outside and participate in hands-on learning activities.

We are also starting some programs in Ukraine to support Ukrainians that are internally displaced within their country. We are partnering with UCare to purchase 1,000 fruit trees that will be planted this fall and winter in the unoccupied regions of Ukraine. A portion of each harvest will be donated to food relief efforts. We are also partnering with EDGE to support their SURGe program to plant Victory Gardens in Ukraine. This program will start in the winter and will create a community garden in Volochysk and school gardens in Kamyanets-Podilskyi, Kyiv, and Zorivka. These programs will serve as pilot programs to develop a toolkit for urban gardening and a pathway to promote urban gardening in city planning and policy creation. The toolkit can be used by other schools and community centers to create urban gardens. The participating teachers will act as mentors to support expansion into other schools and community centers.

If you have any questions, want to learn more about our programs, or know of an organization that would like to participate in the program, then please reach out. We would love to hear from you.

Happy gardening,

The SPI team

Links:

https://seedprograms.org/ukr/

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Jul 14, 2022
School Gardens in Poland

By Robyn Love | Project Leader

Home garden for community sharing

Greetings from SPI,

We are happy to share with you some updates about our progress in making resiliency gardens in Poland. Since Russia invaded Ukraine, over 3 million Ukrainians have entered Poland to escape the hostilities. This influx of people into the country has stressed local supplies of housing, medical care, and food. Poland has provided great support to the Ukrainian people and many residents in Poland have taken Ukrainian families into their homes or have provided support in other ways.

We are partnering with Resiliency Gardens (resiliencygardens.org) to further support Ukrainian refugees and the communities that support them. The program encourages residents to create home gardens to supplement their food supply and share with their neighbors. We are also providing financial and educational support to local schools and organizations in Poland to create vegetable gardens. We are currently working with 21 schools and 1 SOS Children’s Village to help them create a gardening program they can implement during the next school year. The schools that we are working with are located in Poznan, Warsaw, Milanówek, and Nadma. The SOS Children's Village is located in Siedlce. We are still accepting applications from schools that would like to participate and they can register using the linked website. The program also includes partnerships with kidsgardening.org to provide educational materials in the Polish and Ukrainian languages.

These programs will provide additional financial support to schools as they accept additional students into their classes. The addition of Ukrainian children into Polish schools is stressing some of the local school resources. The gardens will help supply additional resources and will provide an enjoyable and therapeutic activity for children to actively work together. The gardens will also supply students with nutritious vegetables for lunch or snack. We are excited to collaborate on these projects and will share more information with you as they get underway.

If you have any questions, want to learn more about our programs, or know of an organization that would like to participate in the program, then please reach out. We would love to hear from you.

Happy gardening,

The SPI team

Links:

Resiliency Gardens webpage

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