From one garden to 16: Local group expands community efforts through festival

FOX23 News at 9 p.m.

CAPE GIRARDEAU, Mo. (KBSI) — A Southeast Missouri nonprofit is using a growing annual festival to expand its network of community gardens and provide fresh food to more families across the region.

Buttheadz Growers Club, a Jackson-based nonprofit focused on building and maintaining community gardens, hosted its second annual 4/20-themed festival Sunday. Organizers say the fundraiser directly supports efforts to grow gardens not only in Jackson and Cape Girardeau, but also in surrounding communities.

The group works to promote homegrown food and provide resources for community gardening, with produce made available to the public or donated to local food banks.

“We want to celebrate the holiday and celebrate positive vibes and help celebrate feeding people that are hungry and needing help by building community gardens,” said Eric Englehart, president of the organization.

Organizers say the event has already contributed to significant growth.

“When we started, we had just one garden up in Jackson at 932 West Jackson Boulevard, and we have now 16 garden beds that started at more, grew to eight and then doubled to 16. That double happened last year with our first event,” said Gary Kelley, a volunteer with the group.

As the network expands, so does the amount of food being given back to the community.

“We’ve donated thousands of pounds of food so far to the community, and we plan to donate thousands more,” Englehart said.

Kelley said the goal is to continue growing those efforts and reach even more communities in the future.

“We’re actually trying to get just proceeds for our gardens to actually be able to we want to stretch crust and most of the United States and be able to help other communities,” Kelley said.

Organizers say they plan to continue building on that momentum, with hopes of hosting a third annual event next year around the same time.

Beyond supporting the gardens, the festival also brings together local vendors, artists and community members.

“This event helps out so many different people from small businesses like these vendors that you see behind me that are set up, showing off their businesses to the artists that are playing here at the concert, all the artists that are playing here are local artists,” Englehart said.

The event featured live music, local vendors and community engagement throughout the day, with organizers emphasizing both economic support and community impact.

Organizers say they hope continued support will allow them to expand their reach even further while maintaining their mission of providing fresh food and resources to those in need. To learn more visit:Buttheadz Grow Shop