Photo by Ben Feigert

Lettuce Link (an innovative food and gardening program growing and giving since 1988) creates access to fresh, nutritious and organic produce, seeds, and gardening information for families with lower incomes in Seattle. We work to educate the community about food security and sustainable food production.

Currently hiring:
Children's Garden Internship with Lettuce Link

What We Do:

• We encourage people to grow food for their families. To promote self-sufficiency, we distribute seeds, plant starts and gardening information to low-income gardeners all over the city.
  
  
• We coordinate with over 64 P-Patch community gardens and 18 other gardens mobilizing and supporting P-Patch gardeners to plant an EXTRA row of produce for food banks and meals programs. In 2012, nearly 26,250 pounds of organic produce was grown and given to over two dozen providers, feeding hundreds of people. (See our 2012 Giving Garden Donation Totals!) You can also download our garden signs to use in your P-Patch or community garden.
  
  
• We garden and donate organic produce to food banks. At Marra Farm in the South Park neighborhood, we cultivate a 3/4-acre Giving Garden on this historic urban farmland, and donate harvests to a nearby food bank. Read more about our Giving Garden at Marra Farm.
  
  
• We educate children about nutrition and sustainable food production. Also at Marra farm, we facilitate experiential learning programs so elementary students learn about healthy food and how to grow it.
  
  
• We harvest fruit from neighborhood backyards. Lettuce Link's Community Fruit Tree Harvest project engages volunteers to pick fruit from neighborhood trees and deliver hundreds of pounds of locally grown, unsprayed fruit to meals programs and food banks.
  
  
• Seattle Community Farm: In 2010, Solid Ground, Seattle Housing Authority and Seattle's P-Patch Program turned unused urban land in the Rainier Valley into a farm for local residents and volunteers. Produce grown at the Farm will go to neighborhood residents with lower incomes, the Rainier Valley food bank, and Teen and Childcare Programs.

Volunteer Information

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Interested in volunteering with Lettuce Link? Lettuce Link relies on dedicated volunteers to make our programs a success. Here are just a few ways you can contribute:

• Help grow fresh, organic produce to donate at local food banks. Spend part of your day getting your hands dirty at the Giving Garden at Marra Farm.
  
  
• Share your gardening knowledge with food bank clients and children. Spend part of your day distributing seeds at food banks or helping with the children's program at Marra Farm.
  
  
• Help pick fruit trees. Spend part of your day picking fruit trees with other volunteers. The season runs from approximately July to September.
  
  
• Bilingual? Help translate at Lettuce Link events. We are always looking for skilled translators, especially Spanish and Russian.

To apply to volunteer, download the Solid Ground Lettuce Link Volunteer Application (in MS Word format), fill it out and email it to lettucelink@solid-ground.org or call 206.694.6754. To volunteer specifically for the Community Fruit Tree Harvest project, please fill out this Fruit Tree Volunteer Application

Frequently Asked Questions

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"How do I sign up to volunteer for Lettuce Link?"
Scroll up to the previous section for volunteer information.

"Where can I donate my extra organic produce?"
Home gardeners with surplus produce can donate to local food banks and meals programs. Here's a list of local food banks & meals programs that will accept your veggies, including locations and hours.

"Can I donate my extra fruit?"
Seattle residents with healthy fruit trees can donate to Lettuce Link's Community Fruit Tree Harvest project, a partnership between Lettuce Link and Seattle Tilth, which connects your surplus fruit to food banks. To register your trees, call the Garden Hotline at 206.633.0224 or email them at help@gardenhotline.org. Volunteers will come and do the rest of the leg- and ladder-work! See “More Information” below for details.

"Can I donate my used gardening tools?"
Lettuce Link – and our Community Fruit Tree Harvest and Marra Farm Giving Garden projects – are grateful for donations of gently used (unless otherwise noted) or new items. See our Gardening Wish List, or contact us directly at 206.694.6754 or lettucelink@solid-ground.org to see if we have the need and/or storage space for larger items.

"Can I make a financial donation directly to Lettuce Link?"
Yes! Click the blue Donate button in the top right of this page, and choose "Lettuce Link" from the "Designation" dropdown menu.

"How else can I support Lettuce Link?"
Order a Lettuce Link Tote Bag! $20 each, and roomy enough to hold a large bag of groceries. Supply is limited; contact us to order yours today at lettucelink@solid-ground.org or 206.694.6754.

More Information

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• Lettuce Link brochure 
  
  
• Gardening for Good Nutrition: A Guide to Growing Your Own Healthy Food: We created this useful guide to help people grow their own organic food and take control of their health needs. It offers simple-to-follow gardening and food preparation advice, basic nutrition information on over two-dozen crops, steps a beginning gardener can follow to set up container gardens or yard gardens, composting advice and a list of community resources. For a free printed copy of the full 32-page guide, please call 206.694.6746 x3 (donations to Lettuce Link are happily accepted).
  
  
• Giving Garden Tips: This document outlines how you can create a successful Giving Garden at your P-Patch. It includes: 1) a food bank growing calendar for Seattle; 2) tips to help you solicit donations, improve soil, grow big yields in small spaces, protect your crops from pests and save seeds; and 3) a Produce Donation Record form to help you track donations to report to Lettuce Link.
  
  
• Where to Donate 2013: A comprehensive list of Seattle-area food banks, meal programs and low-income apartment buildings that gladly accept fresh produce donations, including contact information, best hours to donate, and preferred donations.
  
  
• US Conference of Mayors 2004 Status Report on Hunger & Homelessness in America's Cities: Lettuce Link is featured on page 42.

Lettuce Link in the News

• Seattle Climate Action Plan, Green Ribbon Recommendations (December 2012): A photo of and caption about Lettuce Link's Seattle Community Farm appears on p. 59 of this report.
• Seattle kids get a summer on the farm: City park program connecting kids to their food (Q13 FOX News, 6/7/11)
• Seattle Sprouts Urban Farms (KUOW 94.9 FM, 4/12/10)
• How to Make "Sustainable" Accessible? ( Weekly’s Voracious blog, 9/4/09)
• Lettuce Link Needs Volunteers (Burien KOMO News, 8/17/09)
• Your trees ripe for the picking? (Seattle Times, 9/5/07)
• Solid Ground's Food Resources Programs Connect Community Surplus with Community Need (Worldchanging.com, 9/4/08)
• When it's harvest time, you offer the tree and volunteers pick the fruit (Seattle P-I, 8/19/07)
• Lettuce gather to honor a productive plot in Seattle's South Park (Seattle Times, 8/9/08) 
• Growing in Seattle (Seattle P-I, 6/3/08)

Signs/Forms for P-Patch & Community Gardens

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• P-Patch Produce Donation Tracking Form: Use this form to record your donations to Lettuce Link, and mail it in to us at the end of the growing season. (Please send forms to: Lettuce Link, c/o Solid Ground, 1501 N 45th St, Seattle, WA 98103 or scan and email it to us at lettucelink@solid-ground.org.)
• Giving Garden sign (pdf): Post this generic sign to identify the Giving Garden plot at your P-Patch.
• Giving Garden sign template (Word): You can personalize this sign with your P-Patch name and where the food will be donated. Change the sections highlighted in yellow.
• Produce Donation Tips sign (Word): Fill in the information about where donations will be delivered, and post it on community boards or food bank sheds.
• You Are Invited to Donate sign (Word): Fill in the information about where and when donations will be delivered, and post it on community boards or food bank sheds.
• Plant an EXTRA Row sign (pdf): Another great tool for encouraging gardeners to donate.
• Translated vegetable signs (pdfs): These signs name common giving garden produce and briefly explain how to prepare them. Print and fold them over for double-sided signs you can use to label the vegetables that you donate to the food bank. (Please note: These are high print quality pdfs, so they may take a few moments to download.)

CHINESE:
Beets | Chard | Kale | Leeks | Winter Squash | Yellow Squash

KHMER:
Beets | Chard | Kale | Leeks | Winter Squash | Yellow Squash

LAO:
Beets | Chard | Kale | Leeks | Winter Squash | Yellow Squash

RUSSIAN:
Beets | Chard | Kale | Leeks | Winter Squash | Yellow Squash

SPANISH:
Beets | Chard | Kale | Leeks | Winter Squash | Yellow Squash

VIETNAMESE:
Beets | Chard | Kale | Leeks | Winter Squash | Yellow Squash

Contact Us

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Phone:      206.694.6754   
TTY:          7.1.1
Email:       lettucelink@solid-ground.org
FAX:         206.694.6777
Blog:         http://lettucelink.blogspot.com  

Address:   Lettuce Link
                Solid Ground 
                1501 North 45th Street 
                Seattle, WA 98103-6708