Work Hard, Play Dirty – The Timberland Victory Garden

Timberland employee in yellow boots next to a basket of veggies.

It’s 8:00 am on a hot Monday morning in August and five Timberland employees sporting mud-covered boots and work gloves head outside to start their day – not at their desk, but in the garden.

Timberland employee in yellow boots crouching down in a garden.

Timberland employee inspecting a handful of string beans from the victory garden.

The garden crew, as we lovingly call them, diligently maintain our 1,200 square foot employee-run garden, through the rain of early spring and the heat of late summer, with harvests yielding more than 1,000 pounds. This spring, we stepped outside to kick off our 11^th annual Victory Garden season.

Timberland employee kneeling down to harvest vegetables.

Timberland employee with cucumbers and tomatoes picked from the garden.

Every day employees pull on their boots, slip on their gardening gloves and plant, weed and harvest the many vegetables and fruits grown just outside our front entrance. And by 9:00 am each morning the lobby is overflowing with cucumbers, tomatoes, peppers, blueberries and beans with eager employees racing to buy the juiciest tomato and the biggest zucchini. But the truth is, as tasty as they are, we’re not really in it for the veggies…

Timberland employee holding a tray full of fresh-picked tomatoes.

Every year we are able to donate all proceeds from the garden to a local, deserving chartiy. This year every dollar our employees give for their produce goes straight to the NH Foodbank, who in turn distributes food to more than 425 non-profit organizations throughout the state of New Hampshire. Over the years, the Victory Garden has yielded more than $20,000 in donations supporting the NH Foodbank.

Basket sitting in the grass, filled with fresh-picked veggies and fruits.

Doing good is part of who we are and always will be. Our purpose centers around our ability to work together to make it better, both with our products and in our community. So when we see an opportunity to do more good, we’re eager to take action, big or small, clean or dirty. The Victory Garden is just one example of how we’re able to make it better, for our employees (yay for getting paid to garden!) and the community around us.