On June 22^nd, eight Quota Club members toured Loveland Youth Gardeners. Quota has supported this 501(c)3 organization for many years and is pleased to see this wonderful youth-based service continue to grow each year. Ryan Abbott, Interim Executive Director facilitated our tour. It was a WONDERFUL tour and multiple times Ryan mentioned their appreciation for Quota’s support.

To learn more about Loveland Youth Gardeners click on this link to view their website:

https://www.lovelandyouthgardeners.org/

Highlights from their website:

In 2021, they took an old abandoned BMX track and turned it into a beautiful wheelchair accessible teaching farm that hosts chickens, bees, medicinal and culinary gardens, production rows, student raised beds, a farm stand and more!

Loveland Youth Gardeners was the vision of its founding director, Joanna Rago, a Clinical Social Worker who believed that working with young people to cultivate skills and strengths through growing an organic garden would benefit youth, the environment, and the community. 

In May of 1996 with the help of Thompson School District, City of Loveland Department of Solid Waste, and the Larimer County Master Gardener Program of CSU Extension the first pilot intervention program began to serve Loveland area youth with emotional and behavioral challenges.

Loveland Youth Gardeners received 501(c)3 nonprofit status in 2000 and has grown to include four youth education programs (Youth Gardening Program, Leaf Out Program, Enterprise Internship Program, Branch Out Program) serving young people ages 3-21, as well as numerous community service projects, including the Loveland chapter of Plant a Row for the Hungry (since 2005).