Powering Community Gardens Across the US

Happy Spring!

At SPI, spring is always a busy time for us, as it represents the time where we do a lot of the leg work that allows us to build gardens and communities across the country.

In 2022, we got over 267,000 seed packets into the hands of local partners across the country for school and community garden projects. That’s enough vegetable seed to produce 9,724,140 vegetable servings!

Now, as spring is springing and planting seasons are approaching in 2023, we have been working to get more vegetable seed into the hands of partners to grow gardens, build community, and promote food literacy and local food systems across the country. 

So far, we have distributed 43,100 seed packets to our community partners, and we’re just getting started. From Chicago’s school districts to libraries in Arizona, Colorado, and more, to the Department of Public Health in North Carolina, our vectors for vegetable seed distribution are diverse and ever-growing. 

We know that food justice is a growing concern in the US. In a country that boasts one of the highest GDPs in the world, America is seeing growing wealth disparities, and one place that is reflective of that is communities’ access to healthy food. In fact, recent studies suggest that food insecurity rates are as high as 1 in 5 amongst American families, a statistic that has grown in recent years. 

But we know that access to food is not created equal. We focus on vegetable gardens because many under resourced communities have diets that are high in processed foods and have little access to fresh vegetables and fruits - which are critical to a well-balanced diet. 

Through our community garden programs, we are increasing access to healthy food, building community resilience, and promoting food literacy. 

Stay tuned to hear about our community partners’ successes once their gardens are planted in growing in the coming months. 

Thank you for your support- we wouldn’t be able to do this without you. 

Happy gardening,
Georgia