In the Community.
At Garden of Vegan community means everything to us.
One of our company values is ‘Get Your Hands Dirty’, which literally means what it says.
GET YOUR HANDS DIRTY
Our ‘Get Your Hands Dirty’ programme was created as an opportunity for all Garden of Vegan team members to roll up their sleeves and get active in the local community through a wide range of initiatives including supporting flood relief and bushfire recovery and lending a helping hand to those less fortunate.
volunteering
Recently our team physically gave time to support a local certified organic farmer down in Murwillumbah; The Bio Organic Farm. We were able to help them plant new crops and get back on their feet.
donations
Garden of Vegan donates approximately 2,000 meals a year to Oz Harvest who disperse these to local community groups and centres in need. Between January and April 2022 Garden of Vegan have also donated over 1,200 meals to flood victims, providing much needed nourishment to many local families.
During this time we have also donated $1,000 to four different animal sanctuaries to aid in flood recovery.
“We were inundated by the catastrophic floods that hit our region in February and March 2022. A 60-metre-wide torrent tore through our 130-acre sanctuary, destroying everything in it’s path... animal shelters, 100’s of metres of fencing, even our cars were washed away. We have sustained around $130,000 worth of damage to the land and infrastructure. Our driveway was so badly damaged that we had no vehicle access in or out for days after each flood and it remains severely damaged, another two of our internal roads were washed away cutting off access to paddocks, we have 5 large landslides on the land, creek bank collapses and severe erosion to the remaining roads, our massive dam is totally gone (it is now filled with rocks that were brought down from the hills by the walls of water), and we lost our entire hay store. We were so grateful to see the smiling faces of Mel, Benny and Damo when they arrived in those first days after the flood with their work boots on and a willingness to get their hands dirty. They worked so hard in the blistering heat and humidity, helping us to clean up flood debris and retrieve washed away infrastructure…they even built us a new duck palace!” - B Starbright, The Owl & PussyCat
restoring the environment
Garden of Vegan have partnered with One Tree Planted, a 501(c)(3) non-profit organisation with the global mission of providing a simple method to planting trees, making it easy for everyone to help support the environment. Globally they are in partnership with local communities and credited experts positively improving nature, people and wildlife. The rebuilding of forests after fires and floods, assists the community not just physically but economically, opening up many job opportunities while restoring our biodiversity. Many projects combine benefits contributing to the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals.
For every new customer who places an order we plant a tree via our partners, One Tree Planted, and have to date planted over 3,500 trees, which has aided in bushfire recovery in Australia.
read moreThis conscious decision to do our bit for the environment didn’t come without good reason. Australia experienced one of the largest natural disasters in history. 2019's fire season brought about unprecedented destruction as wildfires spread across every Australian state, burning up nearly 6 million hectares (15 million acres) since January 2020. But the devastation witnessed in the state of New South Wales was nearly unfathomable - 3.6 million hectares (8.8 million acres) were lost, over 1,500 homes destroyed or damaged, and 24 people lost their lives. New South Wales is home to some of the most iconic of Australia's wildlife - koalas, wombats, and kangaroos to name a few - and their habitat is rapidly declining.
planting trees helps to:
Restore native forests. Planting trees, will help to assist native vegetation in growing back whilst also preventing erosion, improving soil quality and controlling invasive species which be a threat particularly after bush fires.
Protect wildlife, by restoring critical habitat. A healthy ecosystem supports higher biodiversity and encourages resiliency to many environmental threats and stressors including climate change.
Reduces the impact of future bushfires. Young healthy forests can help minimise the threat of future wildfires. It also helps prevent future catastrophic spreading and reduces the impact of smoke which is considered as a public health concern and is damaging to the native ecosystems.
“Our love and appreciation for Garden Of Vegan goes far beyond that of two businesses in a symbiotic relationship supporting one another in order to gain profits. Each and every one of co founders of GOV, which we view as more of a astronomical movement than a business, are some of the most genuine caring and compassionate individuals all assembled together in the soul purpose of providing the community with the best meals nature can provide.
GOV crew go far beyond that too. They reach out to farms and other operations, like our’s with their open arms, enthusiasm and energy devoted to assist at ALL times- While times are good or grim, we had not needed to reach out and they were there by our side.
We, as a young family and as a small certified organic farm business, love and appreciate our friends at Garden Of Vegan and highly recommend their delicious organic food and other products. A true inspiration to many :)”
- Oogie, The Bio Organic Farm
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