2015 Annual Report

Thank You to Our Donors & FundersGrantsToronto Foundation, Vital Ideas; Canada Post Community Foundation; Lush Cosmetics Charity Pot; TD-Friends of Environment Foundation - Leadership; Keen Effect (Keen Shoes); Canada Summer Jobs program (Government of Canada); Investing in Neigh-bourhoods (City of Toronto).

Foundations The Acapella Foundation, The Joan and John Barford Family Foundation, J.P. Bick-ell Foundation, S.M. Blair Family Foundation, Lloyd Carr-Harris Foundation, George Lunan Foundation, The McLean Foundation, The Murray R. O’Neil Foundation, The Leonard and Gabryela Osin Foundation, Weston Park People via Toronto Christian Resource Centre, Geoffrey Wood Foundation, The Marjorie & Joseph Wright Foundation

Corporate Donors Chater Investments (1996) Limited; Edelman; Elementary Teachers of Toronto; Loblaws Inc.; Mondelez; Munich Reinsurance Company of Canada; Osler, Hoskin & Harcourt LLP; Winchester Public School; Telus Thank you to Chocosol Traders, Paintbox Bistro and Southbrook Vineyards for their generous contributions to our Fall fundraiser, and to FoodSpokes Strategic Solutions for catering our AGM.

Individual DonorsManuel and Cheryl Buchwald, Robin Buyers, Alexander Campbell, David Clandfield, Mitchell Cohen, Joe Durand, Richard Fiordimondo, Diana Fitzgerald, Harriet Friedmann, Sunday Harrison, Karen Heisz, Sarah Hood, Joanne Huffa, Lynsey Kissane, Virginia Kairys, June Komisar, Shirley Lang, Toba Sheryl Lavine, Sean Lerner, Harry Lindsay, Bob Luker, Murray Lumley, Genevieve Mann, Reginald McQuaid, Kotisa Morgan, Blake Murray, Joe Nasr, G. Nickles, Joan Lorraine Olaney, Lenny Olin, Dylan Reid, Heather Reimer, Allison Rock, Harry Rudolfs, Leah Sandals, Dana and Gil Manoliu Shoham, Prateeksha Singh, Frances Slaney, Robert Spence, Alissa Vieth, Michael Waglay, Sheila and Michael T. Ward, Christofer Williamson

Green Thumbs Growing Kidsc/o Centre for Social Innovation, Regent Park585 Dundas St. E., 3rd FloorToronto, ON M5A 2B7

www.greenthumbsto.org Donate online via CanadaHelps: canadahelps.org/dn/7819Or call our office: 647-348-5437

@greenthumbsto

greenthumbsto

@greenthumbsgrowingkids@urbanrootsyouth

2015 Report

Sunday HarrisonFounder & Executive Director

Green Thumbs Growing Kids, a community-based charity, is proud to present our 2015

Annual Report. We are on track in our mission of bringing ecological gardening and food literacy pro-grams to schools and parks for children, youth and families, begun back in 1999. This year, as part of our first-ever 3-year Strategic Plan, we grew our vision to include adding new school partners, and develop-ing a social enterprise, installing and managing gardens on residential properties. We are so thankful to the Toronto Foundation for its Vital Ideas grant which enabled us to begin creating a new, more informative website and other key communications tools. In alignment with our strategic directions, this grant increases our ability to share our deep knowledge and experience with a broader community. The grant also gave us the opportunity to update our word-mark, dropping the “growing kids,” as we serve more youth and adults, and to have a sleeker, all-ages look.

cont’d. page 4

2015 Board of DirectorsPresident, Virginia Kairys

Vice-President, Tanya English Secretary, Melissa Yule

Treasurer, Prateeksha Singh Natasha Arsenijevich

Robin Buyers • Shanti Harris Todd Irvine • Helene St. Jacques

Alissa Vieth

StaffExecutive Director: Sunday Harrison

Operations Manager: Cassie ScottChildren and Youth Programs Co-ordinators:

Chimu Titi, Ivanna ProtsVolunteer & Membership Co-ordinator: Sara Patino

Social Enterprise Co-ordinator: Claire Trepanier

Interns, Co-op & Practicum StudentsAyswar Ajanthan, Richard Bills, Warda Ferej, Caleb

Isenor, Megan McDonald, Sujithan Navakumar, Sofia Paska, Arash Rafat

Youth Summer Staff Allison Ha, Marika MacLean,

James Malekzadeh

Program Partners Toronto District School Board;

City of Toronto Parks, Forestry and Recreation; Toronto Christian Resource Centre; Ryerson University

School of Early Childhood Studies; George Brown Community Worker Programme; OISE/UT Faculty

of Education; Rose Avenue Parenting Centre; Central Neighbourhood House; Gerrard Kiwanis Boys and Girls

Club; York University Faculty of Education; Cabbagetown Youth Centre;

Taste of Regent Park; Dixon Hall; Lord Dufferin Community Day Care

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Kids GrowingFrom planting a tiny seed to making fresh pesto, children’s exploration of nature and healthy food is at the heart of this elemen-tary school program! Our day program utilizes school gardens as dynamic classrooms for vibrant, hands-on learning, supporting teachers’ learning objectives and providing accessible and safe outdoor activities.

Urban Roots Youth This after-school and summer youth program teaches young adults the techniques of growing food in small spaces. They help compost, maintain school gardens and rainwater catchment systems, as well as sell produce at a local market. In summer, they also provide recreational pro-grams for young children in the gardens. With the introduction of our exciting new social enterprise, youth now have opportunities for additional paid employment by providing residential gardening services.

Grownups Gardening Our community engagement program for adults, many of whom are parents in our partner schools, offers free gardening workshops, summer family drop-ins and community gatherings in our gardens and greenhouses. Members can earn certificates as well as receive volunteer honoraria, delicious snacks, seedlings and produce. Adult volunteers are key to the success of our Kids Growing programs, allowing each child to get hands-on experience and individualized support for their learning..

Our Programs

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Highlights of 2015

Green Thumbs Growing Kids is now a proud Good Food Organization, associated with Community Food Centres Canada. We, along with 73 other organizations nationwide, are working towards a healthy and fair food system, and are committed to principles of health, empowerment and respect.

Below left: Board Member Tanya English and Chocosol founder Michael Sacco raising their glasses at the Raise a Glass fundraiser held November 28 at Paintbox Bistro. Not shown, Paul deCampo of Southbrook Wines who filled the glasses we raised!

Above: Naya Illanes on our Lush Walk in the Garden August 8

Below: Urban Roots Youth participants Tristan Andrews and Madeeha Falif, after speaking at our fundraiser.

A Day in the Garden

Join us for our Friend-Raiser!

Growing, Giving & Gathering

Allan Gardens Children’s Greenhouse

SATURDAY, APRIL 25TH | 1- 4:30PM

Members $10

Non- members

$15/$20 $5 for kids!

$10 for

students!

Ticket Prices:

Want to be a Green

Thumbs member? Your

$20 ticket includes

a membership! GET TICKETS

https://gtgk.eventbrite.ca/

QUESTIONS?

events@kidsgrowing.ca

A LUSH WALK IN THE GARDEN SATURDAY | AUGUST 8 | 10:30AM-1:00PM

Rose Avenue P.S. Community Garden 10:30AM-NOON | 675 Ontario St.

Winchester P.S. Community Garden

10:30AM-NOON | Winchester St. & Rose Ave.

Sprucecourt P.S. Community Garden 10:30AM-1PM | 70 Spruce St.

……………………..

…………………….. Join us for a tour of Green Thumbs' school-community gardens! Bring your family and friends

for a morning snack, children's activities, live music, prize draws and giveaways! Meet at Sherbourne Station at 10:30 OR

at the garden of your choice Thank You:

Above: A Lush Walk in the Garden arrives at Winchester School Community Garden, August 8.

Left: Ivanna Prots, Children’s Garden and Food Educator, with four Co-op students, preparing a program at Allan Gardens Children’s Conservatory

Below left: A Day in the Garden Friendraiser and A Lush Walk in the Garden event flyers - both successful events run by members

Below: Urban Roots Youth participants learning plant propagation in the new Regent Park

Greenhouse.

The Joan and John Barford Family Foundation also helped with this grant, and to them and the Toronto Foundation we send our deep grat-itude. This is the kind of grant that goes beyond programming and into organizational capacity, and I’m happy to say that it had exactly the intended effect – growing our orga-nization as well as our programs.

The keener eyes among you will notice my title changing from Program Director to Executive Director. I am grateful to the Board of Directors for selecting me for this role, and for their support in helping me live up to it. I am deeply honoured to continue to serve this organization as it evolves. I look forward to the 2016 programs and services, and the continuing devel-opment and dynamic growth of our community.

2015 Report cont’d. By the Numbers

In our programs, there were participant opportunities for 3,771 children, including 65 participant opportunities for kids with special needs, 300 for youth, and 197 for adults: a total

of 4,268 participant opportunities.

We provided 304 hours of programming, including 178 chil-dren’s workshops, 58 youth workshops, teacher training for 60 teacher candidates, and 16 adult/family programs.

40 adult volunteers contributed a total of 2,669 hours helping in programs, in the office and on the Board. Four secondary and four post-secondary students contributed an additional 1,800 hours supporting our organization through their field-work placements, for a total of 4,469 volunteer hours.

We gardened a total area of 20,000 square feet over 4 schools, and raised thousands of seedlings from dozens of plant varieties, in 2 greenhouses. We worked with 57 teachers in 8 schools in 2 languages: Rose Avenue PS, Winchester PS, Sprucecourt PS, Lord Dufferin PS, Ecole Gabrielle-Roy, Nelson Mandela Park PS, Norway PS, and Lord Lansdowne PS.

President’s Report

receive a large donation from the Geoffrey Wood Foundation, a longstanding supporter, in the course of its winding up.

I am constantly amazed by the power of learning gardens to achieve so much for children, youth and communities. I am truly honoured to work together with amazing fellow volunteers and phenomenal staff. To all our donors, we at Green Thumbs Growing Kids can never thank you enough. We extend our deepest gratitude.

Financial Report

Virginia KairysPresident, Board of Directors

This year we reached key strategic goals and created momentum to thrive in the years to come.

Through the dedication of staff, board and volunteers, we finalized the develop-ment of effective financial management systems, honed over the last several years. We are very pleased that these are now in place to support management and board oversight.

We also grew in the area of human resources, introducing new ways to conduct staff evaluations and support professional development. Thanks to TD Friends of the Environment, our founder and Executive Director, Sunday Harrison, deepened her management skills at the Banff Leadership program.

This year we found new ways to share our stories and knowledge with others, guided by our strategic plan. We con- tinued to build and engage our commu-nity through vibrant, fun and welcoming garden- and greenhouse-based events for the public.

During our third quarter, we were met with financial challenges that affected the scope of our programming. We responded by reorganizing staff, which successfully limited the impact of these constraints and maintained the excellent quality of our programs. We also held our first fundraising party. Its success laid the groundwork for an even bigger event next year. Finally, we were honoured to

Grants$117,441 Donations

$98,010Events$6,875

Memberships, Social Enterprise, Misc.$6,445

Total Revenue: $228,771 (2014=$209,701)

Kids Growing$49,202

Urban Roots

Youth (& youth staff)

$70,093GrownupsGardening$23,145

Office/

Administration

$42,240

Total Expense: $205,593(2014=$212,199)

A Green Thumbs salad mix

Centre for Social Innovation Membership/ Occupancy$11,930

Eco-Education

Advocacy

$5,031

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Social Enterprise $3,951

Excess of Revenue overExpenses $23,178 (2014=$ -2,498)