Grow It Forward Inc. has grown since its founding in 2014, along with the number of ways it lives out its increasingly essential mission.
The nonprofit is a labor of love for Amber Daugs, founder and CEO, whose journey toward ending food disparity began with her own experience with homelessness and food insecurity. It took shape as Grow It Forward Inc., which has become one of the most visible outgrowths of her work in the local food movement.
“Our mission is to provide dignified access to good food in Manitowoc County, and we work toward not only feeding the immediate need but toward ending future hunger,” Daugs says. “We help to feed those who are food insecure and provide the nourishment of healthy, local foods to those who can afford them as well.”
The Grow It Forward Community Food Center in the former St. John’s United Church of Christ is home to diverse offerings that provide dignified access to food along with opportunities to grow, cook, share and advocate for it. These include, among others, Harmony Cafe & Juicery (relocating to downtown Manitowoc soon), Good Food Pantry and an indoor hydroponic flex farm.
“The key word in all of it is community,” Daugs says. “We bring people together around good food.”
The pantry provides three-day supply boxes that include fresh food as well as examples of how to prepare it. The center’s indoor hydroponic flex farm — now featuring 51 indoor vertical farms — plays a significant role in that, growing fresh greens for the pantry, café and weekly community meal.
“We harvest 250 to 280 pounds of lettuce alone weekly and have become the largest nonprofit hydroponic farm in the state,” Daugs says. “We are a model to agencies like ours across the country.”
The demand for food continues to escalate, and budgets don’t stretch as far as they used to. The dissolution or reduction of food assistance programs has walloped individuals, families and organizations like Grow It Forward.
“We’re seeing individuals who may have received $232 a month on their FoodShare card being bumped to the minimum of $23. At the same time, we’re seeing an average 9% increase in food [cost] and an all-time high for foods like eggs,” Daugs says. “We’re seeing a significant increase in our senior population using the pantry — one-third of our clients are over age 65.”
Food purchasing budgets are going quickly at the same time government commodities are reduced and assistance ends from entities such as Food America and the Hunger Task Force.
“Everything we touch is increasing in costs,” Daugs says. “We have to figure out how do we continue with a diminishing food supply and an increasing number of people to feed?”
Since 2020, the pantry has distributed more than 2 million pounds of food. And in the past year, the pantry has seen an 111% increase in use, registering 14 new households in a recent week alone.
Grow It Forward is intertwined with other nonprofits in the community and is also on the receiving end, as clients from organizations such as the Lighthouse Community Recovery Center provide volunteer services to the pantry and hydroponic farm.
“We’re lifting up our community with nourishment and meaningful opportunities,” Daugs says.
The Grow It Forward team comprises Daugs and 14 staff members — most of whom are part time — as well as volunteers. Daugs anticipates the number of staff to increase with the opening of Harmony Cafe & Juicery in downtown Manitowoc.
“Being downtown will allow us more space to provide even more activities directly to people in need of our services,” she says.
For Daugs, budgetary and labor shortages prompt innovation to deliver on Grow It Forward’s mission. A donation of 4.5 acres of land is ripe with opportunity as well.
“I have a lot of hope,” she says. “This property could grow an enormous amount of food or address housing challenges, for example. My husband said I need to have audacious goals, and I do.”
