It all started with a very innocent little white lie.
It was 1993 and Rich Doss, an Evergreen State College student, had to write a paper on a worldwide NGO for his Third World Service in Agricultural and Sustainable Development class.
The obvious choice was Vietnam veteran Dan Barker and the Home Gardening Project he pioneered in Portland. Dan built and gifted free raised-bed vegetable gardens to low-income households, single-parent families, seniors and people with disabilities.
So Rich sent Dan a letter, explaining he wanted to start a similar program and he mailed it with a self-addressed stamped envelope. The envelope came back with Dan’s business card and Rich went down to Portland. When he got out of his car, the first thing Dan said to him was “So you want to write a paper.” But by the time he finished touring Dan’s projects, Rich was ready to do more than write a paper. He wanted to build free vegetable gardens.
Rich and his wife Maria were ready to create community. Rich wrote a project contract with Evergreen’s Russ Fox, borrowed a truck and began to build gardens with the help of six Evergreen interns. The first year, they built 86 gardens in the Olympia and Shelton areas, and the nearby Skokomish Reservation. It was the start of the Kitchen Garden Project (KGP).
The next year, KGP was on its way to becoming a 501(c)(3) non-profit. “That forced me to raise money and have a board,” he recalls. Dan gave him one of his dump bed trucks. By the fourth year, Rich had even more old trucks and KGP expanded to build gardens all over Thurston and Mason Counties, as well as Tacoma and Seattle.
“My wife Maria and her dad John Jackson were big helps, and Colin Barricklow from Kirsop Farm was also a big part of it. We started networking with the farming community,” Rich said.
The beds multiplied—KGP built 1400 beds between 1993-2000.
While KGP was building beds, Kim Gaffi and Blue Peetz had started the Sister Holly Community Garden Project, connecting seniors with youth. Rich recognized the parallel work and decided to give his 501(c)(3) status and KGP to Kim and Blue.
And that was the start of GRuB.
“Running a non-profit is hard to do and I was ready to turn it over to Kim and Blue,” Rich said with a laugh. To make KGP happen, Rich had lots of side gigs: Outward Bound instructor, high-rise window washer, weekend kitchen manager and cook at the Salvation Army, working weekends at the original Mud Bay pet store and later as facilities manager when Mud Bay expanded.
“Maria worked full time with the state Senate and it was time for me to find a job to support our family.” He became a State Park ranger on Orcas Island when he turned 50.
“I am so proud of what GRuB has done. It’s hard to sustain a mission over time and GRuB continues to figure out smart and useful ways to make a difference. KGP started as trying to do one good thing at a time and GRuB has grown it out with lots of creativity,” Rich said.
He still credits Dan as his north star, a “true philosopher.”
“You should read what he wrote. He inspired us—it felt right to help people and we liked the interaction of being with people and leaving them with something that made their lives better.”
He still invests in the community. Today he and Maria are HOA caretakers on Blakely Island and he manages the community’s water system.
And 25 years later, GRuB continues to build gardens that grow more than food. Just like Rich envisioned so many gardens ago.
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