This year, Gardening Know How’s School and Community Garden Sponsorship Program was fortunate enough to help support 20 gardens with $1,000 each. These gardens represent a wide array of community and school programs, from Florida to Saskatchewan and many places in between. Each has its own unique and powerful story, and we’re excited to share them with you. Every other week we’ll highlight one of our sponsorship recipients to help spread the word about how amazing they really are. This week we’re featuring the Young Gardeners Program.
In 2017 the Young Gardeners Program was founded in Galveston, Texas. A project of the already-established Galveston’s Own Farmers Market, the program began as a way to provide local kids with healthy produce and teach them the power and satisfaction of growing their own food.
And it’s working. Beginning with 40 students at the Rosenberg Elementary School, the program has since expanded to two more schools and is currently serving 100 kids.
The Young Gardeners Program focuses on existing after school initiatives geared toward students in grades 1-4. It establishes on-site organic gardens and teaches children how to tend to the produce they grow. There’s a lot of emphasis on producing food the students can take home regularly to their families – the goal is a half pound bag of vegetables every week for every student!
So far the program has been a huge success, and it’s growing at a rapid rate thanks to the tireless help of volunteers. There are a total of 15 schools on Galveston Island, and the program hopes to have a garden at each of them by 2022.
But if the Young Gardeners Program is going to keep expanding and changing lives, it’s going to need some help. As more gardens and educational programs are established, Gardening Know How will help support the three existing sites, paying for much needed materials such as seeds, fertilizer, and garden bed maintenance.
With the grant from Gardening Know How, the Young Gardeners Program will be able to serve more and more children in Galveston, teaching them the joys of digging in the dirt and taking home the fruits of their labors. We’re proud to be able to help them realize this dream.
