Local Business Focus: Healthy Communities Coalition – Community Roots and Shoots
Dayton’s Community Roots and Shoots is cultivating far more than local flora in their nursery—it is offering a helping hand to neighbors in need and providing youth empowerment activities to families across Lyon, Storey and Mineral counties. Operating under Healthy Communities Coalition (HCC), Community Roots has spent the last two decades providing vital resources, from food security and nutrition education to mental health services and substance use prevention.
This active nonprofit provides a place for community members to grow, live and learn, focusing on three major service hubs: Healthy Food, Community Development, Health & Wellness. Under the Healthy Food Hub, HCC operates farmers markets and school gardens plus food pantries in Dayton, Silver Springs, and Yerington, serving thousands of individuals every month. But it’s not just about handing out food—it’s about respecting the individual and offering holistic support. Customers can choose their groceries, talk with community health workers and access resources ranging from Narcan and fentanyl strips to primary care referrals. However, with more federal budget changes and cuts proposed, most if not all HCC programs will be impacted.
“The hardest thing is awareness, understanding and being informed because people don’t know what’s happening,” said HCC Executive Director Wendy Madson. “As the need rises and the cuts keep coming and depending on this next cut that’s on the table, we’re going to desperately need volunteers.”
HCC counts its blessings, though, and is excited about the recently-awarded American Heart Association grant being used to build two Community Roots hoop houses so they can grow more food onsite to supply their pantries, which will help if funding options continue to dwindle. HCC also appreciates its ingoing partnerships with local retailers like Smith’s, Grocery Outlet, Raley’s and Food Bank of Northern Nevada among others for their continued support.
Under the Health & Wellness Hub, HCC has safe school professionals—social workers and community health workers—who are embedded with schools across Storey and Lyon counties, providing youth prevention activities and support.
“That is our core, but you start doing this work and it doesn’t take long before you recognize what prevention looks like; it’s transportation, having a house, having food, not having pain because your teeth hurt,” explained Madson. “We really look at unmet needs and find ways to respond, whether it’s through partnerships and bridging or sometimes we step up and make it happen.”
That community-first approach also drives their Comstock Youth Works Program, one of the team’s most cherished initiatives. Working closely with schools in Dayton, Silver Springs, Fernley and Yerington, HCC identifies at-risk high school juniors and seniors who would benefit from workforce training. These students are placed in HCC-paid internships with local employers where they gain soft skills, mentorship and school credit. Additional enrichment activities every Monday and Wednesday provide time for hands-on learning, teamwork and fun. This is not just a summer job, it is a life-changing opportunity.
Under the Community Development Hub, the team offers various trainings and rural outreach clinics among other services, but the Community Roots nursery is what ties it all together. The nursery started as a fundraiser and has morphed into an employer of local youth and retired folks as well as a sheltered worksite for people needing community service, recently released from jail or in recovery (all employees are thoroughly vetted). While the nursery technically runs at a loss, the impact from this venture is well worth it to the team. Customers may not realize the full impact of their purchases, but every plant sold goes to support other HCC programs and the people running them.
“The nursery is kind of a little unicorn within all of this; a lot of awareness comes from coming into that nursery,” said Madson. “It also kind of serves the people who just come to be, just to sit. It’s beautiful, it’s calm. It’s kind of that safe space to come and hang out.”
How the Community Can Support
Every Thursday from now until Sept 18, the Dayton Farmers Market springs to life from 3–6 p.m. outside the HCC Solidarity Garden (60 2nd St), next to Dayton Pizza Factory. What started 15 years ago as a solution for local seniors to use their senior coupons has grown into a vibrant hub of produce, vendors and activities. HCC works with two regional farmers, ensuring fresh fruits and vegetables are within reach for families, and those with EBT benefits. Local cottage food vendors also participate, which further supports our local economy.
“Any proceeds at all go directly to help with programming,” said Madson, who also confirmed that they do not typically make money on the markets, but the goal is to provide access to vital nutrients and a place for community members to come together.
“One of the things we hear often as a need is where do families and kids go to get out and engage, where’s the sense of community and how do we build that back again,” added HCC Deputy Director Noel Chounet. “Because it’s really the community that addresses risk factors with youth and supports that healthy growth, supports each other as our population ages.”
We are lucky to have a resource like Community Roots and Shoots. It is more than a nonprofit—it is a movement rooted in compassion and empowerment. Whether you can donate, offer volunteer support, host a food drive, attend a market or simply spread the word about their programs, your small act of kindness can positively impact your own neighborhood.
HCC just recently added prescription lock boxes and gun locks to their list of offerings and wants to help community members and their children safe in their homes.
Visit www.communityrootsnv.org or www.healthycomm.org for more details about programs and services. Follow Healthy Communities Coalition of Lyon & Storey Counties on Facebook and to take a new survey to help gain insights on impaired driving in our area.
