Friends Against Family Violence issued a press release this week sharing that on June 16th, the Rotary Club of Vernal put the final touches on two garden boxes at the Friends Against Family Violence Domestic Violence Shelter. A community effort of local businesses and non-profits provided all of the materials and labor to make this project a reality. Now, domestic violence victims in the Tri-County will have sustainable food options and will learn valuable life skills when staying at the Friends Against Family Violence shelter. The materials for the project were donated by the Utah State University Extension – Uintah Basin Family Wellness Program. Their grow box project prepares the materials for organizations and provides gardening education at their Roosevelt location. In order to ensure the sustainability of the boxes, the Rotary Club of Vernal donated all of the materials and labor to install a drip system. After two mornings of digging and laying the lines, the drips were in place. Employees from Western Midstream, an energy treatment and processing organization in Naples, built the grow boxes and donated the vegetables. Allred’s Yard and Garden provided those vegetables, along with soil, at a steep discount to help with the project. Basin Flood & Fire transported the many bags of soil to the shelter where volunteers from the Rotary Club of Vernal filled the boxes and planted the vegetables. To commemorate the project, the Rotary Club of Vernal is having a plaque created that lists all the partners that played a role in having the garden boxes created. The hope is that the residents at the shelter will see how many organizations in the community are there to support them. The staff at the shelter were blown away at the final product and excited to start planning meals with the tomatoes, cucumbers, and more.
