Homegrown | Roger Doiron, founder of Kitchen Gardeners International in Scarborough, espouses the benefits of growing local
Eating is getting more expensive. From tomatoes in the produce aisle to the morning bowl of cearal, food costs this year rose more than 6% through April, according to the U.S. Department of Labor. And those rising prices have sparked a resurgence in the so-called “kitchen garden” — a garden whose sole purpose is to supply fruits and veggies for the household table. The phenomenon has gained attention in both local and national media as more people turn to gardening in their backyards, in hopes that their green thumb could save them some green.
Roger Doiron has been waiting for people to jump on his bandwagon. Doiron is the founder of Kitchen Gardeners International, a nonprofit he runs out of his Scarborough home that spreads the word about the benefits — both economical and ecological — of keeping a small-scale, household garden. Doiron developed the idea for KGI after spending 10 years in Brussels, Belgium, working for Friends of the Earth, a grassroots environmental organization.
As KGI’s sole staff member, Doiron manages the nonprofit’s website as well as a growing online community that now counts members from 100 different countries. Doiron also organizes the annual International Kitchen Garden Day in August, a celebration now held on four continents. Since last year, he also has been developing a program that provides grants up to $1,000 to garden organizations in developing countries.
Since he founded KGI in 2003, Doiron’s seen a steady upswing in the number of people interested in growing their own food, especially in the past few months. Seed companies in Maine, like Fedco in Waterville, and across the country are seeing “their best year in the past 20 to 30 years,” Doiron says. And KGI’s online community has blossomed, too, from 2,800 members at the end of 2006 to more than 6,000. This year, membership has increased by 1,200.
With across-the-board food prices increasing at their fastest rate since 1990, more people are finding it’s more cost effective to grow than to buy. “What’s different now is that there are more factors mixing and mingling, and those are heading more people back to the garden or to the garden for the first time,” he says.
Doiron keeps three gardens at his home, including a 1,250-square-foot plot that takes up about half the backyard on his one-third-acre lot. Doiron grows dozens of varieties, from Sun Gold cherry tomatoes to Belgian endives, and estimates he saves about $500 a year just by growing his own tomatoes and salad greens.
The surge in kitchen gardeners also has helped Doiron boost the visibility of his nonprofit. Last November, Doiron was accepted into the Food and Society Policy Fellows Program, which funds the public outreach efforts of those working in sustainable food systems. The fellowship’s $60,000 two-year stipend will allow Doiron, who also works as a freelance writer and consultant for nonprofits, to focus primarily on KGI. The organization’s $25,000 annual budget comes mostly from environmental foundations like the New England Grassroots Environment Fund, as well as individual donations. Doiron is planning to step up fundraising efforts this year to grow the nonprofit’s budget to $45,000.
Doiron has become a nationally recognized advocate for home gardens, featured in articles in The New York Times and The Washington Post. His latest project making national headlines? His campaign to convince America’s next president to plant a kitchen garden on the White House lawn, a historical practice that ended with Eleanor Roosevelt’s Victory Garden during World War II. Doiron is calling it “Eat the View,” and hopes that a White House garden would send the message that America takes issues like climate change and food security seriously. “This is one idea that should get another look,” he says.
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