In 2010, the Burpee Home Gardens team was excited to share the rewards of vegetable gardening to a selection of youth and public gardening programs across the United States. We felt honored to assist locations in Dallas (Promise of Peace), Denver (D.U.G.), New York, and other worthy gardening organizations.
Now Burpee Home Gardens is ready to kick it into high gear for our second season! This week we’ve launched the 2011 “I Can Grow” Youth Garden Award program, which supports and sponsors urban school and community youth gardens with plants, expertise, promotion – and of course money for supplies!
We’re ready to support America’s youth in the garden. What we need is your help! If you’re a youth educator – either through school or community organizations – we want to hear how you plan to incorporate the gardening experience into your curriculum.
Ideally we’re looking for existing or start-up programs nationwide that demonstrate a well-developed plan to emphasize the importance vegetable gardening brings to:
- Nutrition and food production
- Environmental awareness
- Social responsibility, and
- Overall education.
What started this year with our “I Can Grow” initiative and the Four E’s of vegetable gardening has expanded to reward even more worthy youth gardens ready to dig in and get started. And since growing vegetables has long been considered a social pursuit, we encourage you to pass along our announcement of the "I Can Grow" Youth Garden Award program to friends, neighbors, administrators, and others. But you have to hurry; postmarked deadline for applications is Friday, Dec. 3.
Click on the following link to learn more about the 2011 “I Can Grow” Youth Garden Award program, and to download an application via email.
Good luck to all the applicants!