Mission & Vision

About GRuB

GRuB works at the intersection of food, education, and health systems. With roots in the land, we create opportunities for people to learn, lead, and thrive. We envision an equitable world where we are all nourished by healthy relationships, resilient community, and good food. Each year, GRuB directly engages approximately 1,500 Thurston County residents of all ages in relationships-based programming around growing & preparing good food. We primarily work with marginalized young people with low incomes and/or behavioral and disciplinary indicators of high ACE (Adverse Childhood Experience) scores, families with low incomes, students, seniors experiencing hunger, tribal communities, and veterans.

GRuB's Mission

GRuB grows healthy food, people, and community. With roots in the land, we create opportunities for people to learn, lead, and thrive.

GRuB's Vision

We envision an equitable world where we are all nourished by healthy relationships, resilient community, and good food.

Our Community Commitments

We work with people whose individual circumstances, and social or historical context have led to food disparities, especially when linked to isolation from community and the land, particularly people who are Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPOC), Opportunity Youth (youth experiencing barriers to success), low-income families, Veterans, and people who are LGBTQIA2S+.

To work towards our mission and vision, we engage participants in our five main umbrella programs, with several projects within them: The GRuB Garden Project, which brings gardens to low-income families in our region; Veteran Programming, which helps Veterans transition into civilian life and supports budding Veteran agricultural and beekeeping enterprises; Wild Foods and Medicine, which offers teachers training on local native plants and the rich Indigenous cultural traditions that surround them;  Youth Programs, which supports Opportunity Youth as they gain social-emotional and career skills, education and tutoring, and a wage while working on our 3-acre farm; and the Growing Home Collective, which works to uplift the leadership of Black people who are experiencing impacts of the legacy of American oppression and enslavement.

Please check out our Anti-Oppression Statement to learn more about GRuB's commitments to work against systemic oppression.

Take a virtual tour of the GRuB farm & learn more by watching our episode of Mission Non-Profit:

Land Acknowledgement

We acknowledge the land on which we reside, farm and gather is the ancestral home of the Steh-chass people of the Squaxin Island Tribe. We thank the many Salish coastal peoples, including the Squaxin, Sq̓ʷaliʼabš (Nisqually), Chehalis, and other nations for stewarding and tending this land with great intention since time immemorial. Through our programs founded in social justice, food access, anti-racism, equity and community building, GRuB is on the long journey toward decolonizing our relationship to the land, its peoples and cultures, true history, plants, and wildlife. Thank you to all of those who came before us, and to those who make our work possible.