Growing Veterans

Growing Veterans mission is to empower military veterans to grow food, communities, and each other; and out vision is to end veteran isolation that leads to suicide. We combine veteran reintegration with sustainable agriculture- creating a holistic solution to fighting the multitude of issues the veteran population faces and simultaneously empowering our fellow vets to strengthen the incredibly important sustainable agriculture movement. Growing Veterans has a unique foundation story. Rather than being the spawn of an individual idea, we are more of a culmination of many ideas, experiences, and conversations. In early 2012 a Korean War veteran put the idea of a veteran led agriculture effort into the mind of our co-founder, Christopher Brown, who had been exploring options for starting a non-profit that combined veteran reintegration with sustainability efforts. Around the same time, Chris, an Iraq & Afghanistan combat veteran himself, was attending Western Washington University (WWU), studying human services and psychology. Most of his research revolved around military veterans. Simultaneously, Chris was working an AmeriCorps position at WWU?s Veterans Office and started having thoughtful conversations with veteran students from WWU?s famous Huxley College of the Environment. Namely, Dan Nessly a graduate student and Army combat veteran, and Jacob Oostra, Master?s level graduate and Navy Iraq veteran.

Growing Veterans is founded in service, veteran-to-veteran peer support, and farm-to-market. We have farms in King, Skagit, and Whatcom counties, where veterans grow food that is distributed and sold at Seattle's VA hospital and Seattle Tilth's CSA. Acknowledging the many issues that veterans face: unemployment, homelessness, suicide, divorce and depression ? we believe that in most cases the root cause of these issues is isolation. Isolated from the peers they served with, from family and friends, from the community as a whole, it can be difficult for a veteran to remain resilient and get the proper support they need. Growing Veterans provides a place where veterans can get together in support of a positive and worthy cause, allowing them to experience an informal peer-support setting, while also encouraging them to use skills gained in the military or school to support the broader community. While working in the fields we talk about our wartime experience, issues we?re having gaining access to the VA, struggles we face in school using the GI Bill, suicide, politics, medications? we even laugh and poke fun at each other, sometimes ruthlessly, because that?s what camaraderie is all about. After all, most of us are vets. Growing Veterans is a non-profit organization with 501 (c) 3 designation since October 8, 2014.