The International Sonoran Desert Alliance

Your donations will support the youth of Ajo to learn basic job and gardening skills, while tackling the town's local food movement and unemployment cycle.

The Get Going, Get Growing   program, also known as the 4G’s, is administered by theInternational Sonoran Desert Alliance (ISDA) and Ajo Regional Food Partnership  in the community of Ajo, Arizona. This program is in the midst of its fourth year and has proven to be a great benefit not only to the 27 participants it has seen over the course of those years, but to the community as well.

With the help of volunteer mentors, 4G interns are guided on all aspects of gardening including planting and harvesting vegetables, irrigation, soil amendment, growing capacity, fence installations, food preparation and more to become a significant source of fresh produce for this isolated community as well as be promoters for healthy lifestyles. A few projects the 4G interns have participated in include:
 The Ajo Mesquite Project
Ajo Center for Sustainable Agriculture
WIC (Women's, Infants, and Children) demonstration garden
Ajo Unified School District: Edible Ajo School Garden
Loma Bonita Neighborhood garden
Many Hands Community Chicken Coop
The Backyard garden project
Food Pantry/Food Bank
Edible Ajo School Yard
Authentically Ajo Farmers Market  (Picture below with Erich Ecker)


Nutritious and affordable food options are difficult to obtain in our rural low-income town of Ajo, thus characterizing it as a food desert. But in the program’s few short years, gardens have been established and maintained at the health clinic, the school, various neighborhoods and communities, and many backyards. In addition, over 160 families depend on the free and healthy produce they receive from the local food bank that is grown and donated by the 4G program year round. Below shows two of the 4G's, Kyle Watkins and Bobby Narcho, boxing food at the local Food Bank.


But Get Going, Get Growing means more to us than gardening and healthy eating habits. Interns are also learning essential job training skills to increase their employability, an opportunity that is next to non-existent for the young people in our town. These skills include, but are not limited to, communication skills, interpersonal skills, accountability, and punctuality.

Below is a picture of Mentors Gayle and Don Weyers of Loma Bonita with their 4G intern, Kyle Watkins.


Overall Get Going, Get Growing has an excellent track record of being a valuable asset to the community by taking on a vigorous unemployment cycle, engaging our youth, and promoting healthier lifestyles to our community.

 If the Get Going, Get Growing program is not funded, many current and potential interns will once again be limited in opportunities to learn something new, gain work experience, and grow as individuals.

With your donation the Get Going, Get Growing program will continue to prosper, as well as our interns.