A Gathering for Good
Gather for Good at St. Stephens Nov 5th 2026
Much of our work in early November shifted toward our first priority as an organization: increasing access to food for households experiencing the sharpest impacts of this season.
While TVCGCoop typically supports this through gardens — meetups and tours, sharing seedlings, distributing generously shared seeds, and coordinating donations from supportive businesses and nurseries like North End Organic Nursery — the circumstances this month required something different.
When SNAP benefits were withheld for several weeks, many households across the Treasure Valley felt the strain. Even though benefits are now listed as restored for “most” households (Idaho Department of Health & Welfare), that still leaves community members caught in the gap — a reminder of how fragile food access becomes when systems falter.
What stood out, though, was the remarkable valley-wide community response: food drives, benefit events, neighborhood collections, and mutual-aid efforts led by people and organizations far beyond TVCGCoop. It was compassion in action on a broad scale, and genuinely inspiring to witness.
For our part at the Grow More Good Garden, and in partnership with St. Stephen’s Episcopal Church, volunteers organized an open-to-all, interfaith food-boxing effort that brought people from many backgrounds together — including participants from LDS and Catholic congregations, independent churches, neighborhood groups, and Mayor Lauren McLean — all with one shared purpose: ensuring neighbors could eat.
Who We Focused On
Our November boxing effort centered on supporting the Idaho Hispanic Foundation, which has been assisting families in Nampa who face long food lines, limited weekday hours, and the difficult trade-off of missing work to access food. The number of families they’ve been helping grew to about five times the number served at the start of October.
We aimed to support:
households suddenly affected by the SNAP withholding,
multi-family homes sharing resources,
workers with long or unpredictable hours,
and families recently excluded in seasonal food-access planning.
In just 26 minutes, tables of carefully sorted food were transformed into boxes and bags for families most affected by the sudden loss of benefits.
Photo shared from event organizers, snapped just before the flurry of boxing and bagging began!
100+ bags and boxes of food. More was staged in the next session room over.
Unrestricted Food Access
We encourage community members to check our Find Area Pantries page — updated with locations that offer:
unrestricted access,
expanded hours,
and notes on pantries that need capacity support or volunteer help to improve access.
👉 https://www.tvcgcoop.org/area-pantries
This list is a work in progress, and we welcome updates from community partners.
Email TVCGCoop(@)gmail
How This Fits Into Our Organizational Goals
This rapid-response effort aligns directly with our two core goals:
Increasing access to food, primarily through localized garden-based work.
Growing community connection, especially among home gardeners seeking meaningful ways to share abundance.
The first purpose of this goal is to increase the number of gardeners in community gardens around the valley.
What we undertook in November builds on a modest, responsive trial run that began in August at the Grow More Good Garden — a small network for sharing garden bounty with no restrictions, guided by University of Idaho food safety recommendations and supported by late-season contributions from two additional community gardens.
Though it began late in the season, this pilot revealed something important:
Home gardeners across the valley sometimes grow more harvest than they need and want ways to share it. That insight gives us a foundation to expand garden-based food-sharing in the 2026 season.
A quick $10 banner was made after our first week of food sharing from the garden, from tabloid-printouts taped together.
Looking Forward
November confirmed the importance of continuing to build our community’s collective capacity to:
strengthen our garden-sharing network,
expand unrestricted food access points during the growing season, and
develop a 2026 plan connecting gardens, home growers, and partner organizations into a more resilient local food system.
We’re deeply grateful to every person who collected food, sorted donations, packed boxes, transported supplies, or stood with neighbors during a month when the safety net temporarily disappeared.
Your care made a real difference — and it continues to shape how we show up in the year ahead.
More to come soon about how November’s lessons will inform our 2026 season.