Forest Family Dental Gives Back in a Unique Way
Typically, when we highlight a practice that contributes to its community, it’s about donating time. However, this practice is giving back in a unique way—through fresh garden produce!
Dr. Matthew Williams, a local resident, has owned his practice in Marysville, WA, for 13 years. Growing up in Lake Stevens and attending the University of Washington, he has deep roots in the area. It’s only natural that he wants to give back to his community, especially since his practice philosophy is ‘Rooted in Kindness.’
“We always want to make sure that we’re putting our patients first. And we wanted to just celebrate our surroundings & the Pacific Northwest,” he explains.
Harvesting green beans from the Giving Garden.
Every year he and his team sit down and reassess priorities and resolutions. At the end of 2023, as a practice, they decided they wanted an opportunity to be able to give back to the community.
“I feel like when you have this platform, it’s something where we can rally as a team to really help people out.”
Adding soil to the Giving Garden bed.
Between their desire to help the Marysville Food Bank, their love of gardening, and their desire not to have to mow their small lawn, they discovered the Giving Gardens program on the food bank’s website. They now have a raised garden bed out in front of their office. Patients or visitors can donate a seed packet based on the list of requested vegetables. The team plants, waters, harvests, and drops off the grown produce to the food bank on their behalf.
The Giving Gardens bed on the front lawn of Forest Family Dental.
The program was an immediate success, selling out all their rows in just two days.
“I was really surprised at how many patients were very excited about it. And it’s been a super fun program for us.”
They’ve had success growing all the vegetables except one. “We had some trouble with the beets. We had to grow beets because that was a specific preference from the food bank, but we didn’t do so well with those. We’re in our trial-and-error process here, but I think we’re going to nail it down as we go along.”
According to Michelle Eno, Assistant Director of Marysville Community Food Bank, the Giving Gardens Program has been running for over a decade. They received a total of 12,898 lbs. of donated homegrown produce in 2024 (since the first donation on March 29th).
Dr. Williams has been a Burkhart client since 2017 and enjoys a close partnership with Account Manager Niki Allan, who has also donated to the garden.
“Niki & Burkhart donated cabbage because that was one that the Marysville Food Bank specifically requested. It’s growing nicely, and we’ll be ready to harvest that soon.”
Due to the interest in the program, the team is already planning to expand the size of the garden to help the food bank even more — just as long as it’s not beets!
Burkhart’s rows of cabbage.
Send Us Your Giving Back Stories
We want to recognize our clients who demonstrate exceptional giving in their communities. If you know a dental office/team you would like featured in Catalyst or on social media, please contact Marketing at Marketing@BurkhartDental.com.
Written by Dawn Kahl
Published in Catalyst – Q2 2025.
Category: Giving Back
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