Author: Jenny

Explore What We’re Working On
Sustainable Ballard serves as an incubator for grassroots sustainability projects that directly benefit our community. This year, we’re excited to highlight all 14 of our active projects—ranging from resource sharing and waste reduction to social justice and community resilience. These initiatives are led by passionate volunteers and fueled by local creativity.
Got an idea of your own? We’d love to hear it! Stop by our info booth and let’s talk about how we can support your vision for a more sustainable Ballard.

Project	Location	Activity
@ our Info Booth	Info Booth	Learn how to join Sustainable Ballard and collect all the member benefits. Gather info about Bakery Gleaning, Idle Free Ballard, Free Letters Home, RainWise, Holiday Barter Fair & Spring Beer Hop. Take home coloring sheets, flyers and stickers. Try the bagel toss.
Ballard Knitters & Ballard Menders	Booth	Sit down with our knitting circle. Yarn, needles and instruction available. Bring your excess yarn, thread and sewing machine needles. Find out about the knitting and mending we do for people experiencing homelessness.
Ballard Tool Library	Booth	Join us for a game of cornhole and make a birdhouse from recycled materials to take home. Learn about our tool lending library.
Cider Press	Booth	Help us make apple cider with a modern press set up and then sample the fresh juice result. Thank you to Collins Family Orchards for donating 400# of apples.
Edible Garden Tour & Ballard Sprouts	Booth	Bring your plant starts and divisions to share with other attendees. Take home a new plant or two. Also, see if you can identify 6 herbs by smell only. Learn about sustainable gardening and how you can grow food for the hungry.
Game & Puzzle Swap	Booth	Bring your lightly used games and complete puzzles for our Game & Puzzle Swap.
Market Gleaning	Booth	“Guess the Weight” and “How Many Meals is That?” of a box of produce. Win prizes. Join a gleaning team to pick up leftover produce from the farmers market and deliver to the Food Bank.
Meaningful Movies Ballard	Booth	Check out some movie shorts and trailers and take a poll about what you want to see. Complete with popcorn.

Help us reduce needless vehicle idling to protect air quality and the climate.

Do you care about clean air, climate action, and community education? We’re looking for a passionate and organized volunteer to lead Idle Free Ballard, a grassroots project inspired by the documentary Idle Threat.

Idle Free Ballard raises awareness about the environmental and health impacts of unnecessary vehicle idling. Our volunteers engage neighbors in a friendly, educational way—handing out “Idle Free” business cards and starting conversations in places like:

🚗 Grocery store parking lots
🏞️ Local parks
⛴️ The Ballard Bridge lineup
…and other spots where idling is common.

As Project Lead, you’ll:
✅ Recruit and coordinate volunteers
✅ Help plan outreach events
✅ Explore new ways to share the Idle Free message
✅ Make a local impact on air quality and climate

You don’t need to be an expert—just someone who’s motivated to make a difference and enjoys community engagement.

🌎 Got ideas for outreach? Want to help build a cleaner, healthier Ballard?
We’d love to hear from you!

To learn more or step up as project lead, email us at [your contact info here].

A big thank you to Ballard Elks Club for a donation of $500 for postage stamps. Since the cost of forever stamps has now gone up to 78¢ this will really help us serve over 600 Ballard Food Bank customers.

In July, Free Letters Home had 5 service days at the Ballard Food Bank, accounting for 116 interactions with customers. 156 cards and 125 were distributed. Our small team of dedicated volunteers create a welcoming service for Food Bank customers.

One volunteer, Sue, is fortunate to have a crafty sister-in-law, Debbie, who has donated over 300 cards to Free Letters Home (samples below). Debbie recently crafted over 100 boys and girls themed cards for us. Debbie enjoys creating unique card designs and being able to donate them to FLH. It brings a smile to her face to think that customers at the Ballard Food Bank are able to access a card that is meaningful to them.

A perfect recipe for connection, communication and community.

Thanks to all our generous donors!

Thanks to the generosity of one of our neighbors donating his back yard, the Ballard Sprouts program and volunteers will help grow a Giving Garden where we grow vegetables to donate to the Ballard Food Bank. This fall we’ll be growing peas, garlic, lettuces, purple sprouting broccoli and arugula.

All of this is made possible by a grant from Ballard Elks and an anonymous donation from a generous neighbor. If you are interested in being a giving gardener, either in your own yard or in our giving garden, please contact Jenny.

What is Ballard Sprouts?
At its heart, Ballard Sprouts is about growing vegetable starts to support food justice in our community. We start seeds, nurture them into healthy plant starts, and then donate them to Giving Gardeners—volunteers who grow produce for local food banks—or directly to the Ballard Food Bank, so patrons can grow food for themselves.

This spring, we re-launched this project with a small greenhouse and successfully grew around 400 plant starts. Thanks to generous neighbors and growing community interest, we now have exciting opportunities to expand!

New Garden Space: A Big Opportunity

A neighbor has offered most of his backyard for seed starting and a giving garden. The space already has raised beds, a shed with tools, and a great spot for a greenhouse. There’s a lot of potential—but also a good amount of work to do before we can get planting.

You don’t need a green thumb to help. If you’re new to growing food, this is a great way to learn.

Upcoming Volunteer Opportunities

Sunday, July 20 | 2–5 PM | Weeding Work Party
Location: Near 65th & 23rd
We’ll start by clearing garden beds and paths to prep for fall planting. If time allows, we’ll also begin prepping the future greenhouse site.

Saturday, July 26 | 10 AM – 2 PM | Planting + More Weeding
We should be ready to start seeds, and there will likely be additional garden cleanup needed.

Ongoing Help Needed

• Watering & Garden Care:
  Once we’re planted, we’ll create a regular schedule for watering and tending the garden. If you’re interested in taking a recurring shift—or being a substitute—please let us know. I’ll likely use SignUpGenius to coordinate.
• Greenhouse Build + Grant Help:
  We’re currently sourcing materials and writing simple grants to fund the greenhouse. If you’re handy with tools or have experience with grant writing, I’d love your help.
• Scheduling Support:
  As our volunteer list grows, we could really use someone to help coordinate shifts and events. If organization is your thing, this is a great way to support!

Contact jenny@sustainableballard.org or RSVP here to let us know how you’d like to be involved. Your time and energy mean so much to this project and the neighbors it serves.

Every 3rd Thursday we will be screening a documentary related to sustainability at the Center for Spiritual Living Ballard.

On Thursday July 17th, we will screen Fish War, which documents the historic struggle of Washington tribes banned from fishing in their traditional waters. When law enforcement began arresting Indigenous fishers, it sparked the Fish Wars—violent protests that culminated in a 1974 court decision affirming treaty rights and establishing tribes as co-managers of salmon. Despite this victory, the fight to protect salmon in the Pacific Northwest persists 50 years later.

While a ruling by federal Judge George Boldt in 1974 helped bring the Fish Wars between the state and tribes in western Washington to a close, various battles have since continued; issues with racism, development and climate change among them. FISH WAR sheds light on those issues and the ways treaty tribes continue to fight for their treaty-protected right to access salmon.

We will be joined for our post-film discussion by NWIFC Chairman Ed Johnstone who notes, “In western Washington, the treaty tribes, we’re still here. This is the story of our lives. It’s an emotional journey.”

Free to the public but RSVPs appreciated. Meaningful Movies Ballard will continue to meet every third Thursday at the Center for Spiritual Living Ballard

From Salmon to Soil – Meaningful Movies Ballard Invites You to Learn

Our upcoming August film: Kiss the Ground will explore the issues surrounding soil degradation and the increasing need to tend to regenerating the world’s soils in order to restore lost ecosystems and create abundant food supplies. Watch the trailer HERE!

Join us Thursday August 21st at 6:30pm for this showing. Guest speaker TBD. Free/$5 suggested donation to help cover cost. RSVPs appreciated but not necessary.

Meaningful Movies Ballard will continue to meet every third Thursday at the Center for Spiritual Living Ballard located at: 2007 NW 61st St

The partnership between Sustainable Ballard and the Center for Spiritual Living Ballard successfully relaunched Meaningful Movies in Ballard, beginning with an impactful screening of Stamped from the Beginning in honor of Juneteenth. The film was both dense and powerful, prompting a thoughtful discussion on anti-racism efforts and opportunities within the Ballard community. We thank Lynne and Matt from Coalition of Anti-Racist Whites (CARW) for their time to help lead the discussion. The movie is available on Netflix, and we invite anyone interested in continuing this conversation to join our DEI group which will meet separately throughout the year. Please contact us at info@sustainableballard.org to get involved.

Meaningful Movies Ballard will continue to meet every third Thursday at the Center for Spiritual Living Ballard. On July 17th, we will screen Fish War, which documents the historic struggle of Washington tribes banned from fishing in their traditional waters. When law enforcement began arresting Indigenous fishers, it sparked the Fish Wars—violent protests that culminated in a 1974 court decision affirming treaty rights and establishing tribes as co-managers of salmon. Despite this victory, the fight to protect salmon in the Pacific Northwest persists 50 years later.

A huge thank you to all who helped reboot our Sprouts program this Spring. All in all we grew 80 sugar pea starts, 20 cucumber starts, 225 tomatoes & 100 peppers that went to the Ballard Food Bank for their patrons to grow. They have been a big hit! We also distributed a handful of tomato plants to gardeners who wanted to “grow a row” for the food bank.

A heartfelt thank you to our host Stephanie for the use of her greenhouse and driveway space this year! As we move forward we would like to expand to include an additional greenhouse and a giving garden growing space. See below for volunteer opportunities.

Please contact Jenny if you would be interested in helping with any of the following this summer.

• Weeding and prepping the giving garden space (near 24th & 65th).
• Writing a simple grant or two to get funds to pay for more growing supplies.
• Growing fall crops in the giving garden space (near 24th & 65th).
• Building a greenhouse in the new space near 24th & 65th.
• Not available this summer, but want to help grow veggie starts next spring.