New to Gimp and very excited. I have been a web programmer for about twenty years and looking to expand my knowledge of graphics.

Can anyone tell me if the resources forum for Gimp is on this forum? I am looking for backgrounds which are not necessarily repeating patterns.

Welcome to Gimp Chat dnmuxo.
I don't think GC is actually a resource for images. I could be wrong of course.

Suggestion.
Why not go to a huge image repository like google images and search for a background and select a 'usage rights' that applies to your project?

Here's a good resource. https://unsplash.com/

Like Erisian I use https://unsplash.com/

Others I use or have seen mentioned are:

Free images & royalty free stock
https://pixabay.com/

Free stock photos & videos
https://www.pexels.com/

Free Vectors, Stock Photos, PSD and Icons
https://www.freepik.com/

Free photos that can be used for any artistic endeavor
http://www.fontplay.com/freephotos/

Free SVG vector files
https://freesvg.org/

PNG images and cliparts for web design
http://pngimg.com/

Free textures
http://www.myfreetextures.com/

Images free to download for any purpose
https://cleanpublicdomain.com/

https://wallpapercave.com/

There is this thread in the resources section but it's quite old:
viewtopic.php?f=12&t=8343