Sunday, April 5, Growing Empowerment founder and executive director Kim Doyle Wille hosted the final workshop in a series held at Eagle Crest Nursery this winter. “Transplanting with Growing Empowerment” taught participants the ever-so-delicate art and science of potting up indoor produce seedlings — and avoiding the pitfalls so many of us encounter when trying it on our own.
Let’s face it: failure is one of the many reasons so many of us don’t grow or garden. But the human body needs food to stay alive — and love to flourish. Wille is a master though, so when politics and economies fail us, she turns to fundamental human endeavors: growing food, fostering connection and building community.
Since the 2008 U.S. recession, teaching others to grow food has become Wille’s throughline, her activist response to watching the people around suffer.
“I’ve always cooked for people and wanted to see people fed. When the recession hit, I saw some of my neighbors [turn to alcohol or drugs]. They just needed healthy food. So did I,” she said. So she built raised-bed gardens.
Wille’s been connecting people to gardens and food ever since. She believes that growing one’s own food brings dignity to food insecurity. It empowers people to take charge of their lives and needs when the social and power structures cannot.
And now is the time. The Center on Budget and Policy Priorities, a non-partisan research nonprofit, reports that the Trump administration, with Republican support, aims to fund tax breaks for the wealthiest by cutting federal food support for the nation’s most impoverished.
Wille’s “dignity mission” in 2025 is to grow and distribute more than 5,000 plant starts into the hands of our region’s food-insecure families and individuals through Valley-wide Lift-Up food pantries.
Jan. 29, Lift-Up made a public appeal in an online press conference for more community support. Demand for services has soared 400% since the pandemic, but donations have dropped by 25% in the past two years.
So Wille has been sowing seeds since February — tomatoes, peppers and cucumbers are community favorites. But the list is endless; anything and everything you could dream of that’ll grow in the Rocky Mountains. Think nutritional powerhouses: cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, Brussels sprouts, kale, mustard greens, turnips. Think Simon and Garfunkel: parsley, sage, rosemary and thyme. Think birds and bees and all species “pollinator:” zinnias, calendula, marigolds.
Wille wants to feed us
In addition to Lift-Up plant distributions, Growing Empowerment sells a portion of the seedlings at very fair prices. Purchases help fund ongoing Empowerment costs: LED grow lights, light timers, electricity, gas, seed starting mediums, fertilizers, shelving, flats, trays and portable green houses.
Facilitating workshops comes naturally for Wille. She taught gardening and sustainable science at Yampah Mountain High School for nine years. She made such an impression that some of those students still volunteer and attend workshops with Growing Empowerment.
The hands-on workshops are integral to the volume of labor needed to prepare plants for distribution, but Wille’s hopes are higher than just tangible plants.
“My main thing,” she said, “is to get neighbors knowing their neighbors and community and helping each other, whether it be with gardening advice or sharing their harvests or just listening. I believe in breaking bread together — it opens so many doors.”
Doors in classrooms in the mid-Valley this month, where she’ll be teaching transplanting and leaving those transplants behind for school and student gardens. Doors in her own community, El Jebel, where volunteers spend warm spring days transplanting at work tables in her driveway. Doors at the Good Seed Garden by the Orchard in Carbondale, where 400-500 plants will be sinking roots.
“The vast majority of those gardeners are from low-income households,” she said, “and they’ll donate 10% of their harvests to Lift-Up.”
Wille never stops
“In May, I’ll be offering small hands-on workshops in building self-wicking, keyhole and Hugelkultur raised bed gardens,” she said, referring to efficient approaches that people can build with repurposed materials.
Throughout 2025, Growing Empowerment will continue to have a lasting impact, connecting people and nutritious food, Valley-wide. Because where there’s a Wille, there’s a way.
To attend May workshops, volunteer, learn or buy plants, visit the Growing Empowerment Facebook page or contact Wille directly at kim.wille@gmail.com