Growing Gardens: hands-on food education for 4,000 Portland students
With a $224,818 USDA NIFA grant, Portland nonprofit Growing Gardens ran its Youth Grow project across 11 schools, connecting more than 4,000 students and families with garden-based education and training teen food-system leaders.
Growing Gardens · Portland, OR · USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture · Food Agriculture Service Implementation Project (Youth Grow) · $224,818 · 2021
The challenge
Many students in East and North Portland — particularly in Title I schools — had limited access to hands-on nutrition, science and food-system education, and school garden programmes in the region lacked sustainability.
The funding
In 2021 the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture awarded Growing Gardens $224,818 (grant 2021-70026-35874) under the Food Agriculture Service Implementation Project programme for a two-year project running from September 2021 to August 2023.
What the funding delivered
The Youth Grow project set out to connect over 4,000 students and their families with food and agriculture through hands-on, culturally responsive garden-based education at 11 schools; promote local foods through school cafeterias; engage families through take-home kits and events; strengthen year-round high school garden and food programming; run a high school Food System Leaders internship; and deliver a national School Garden Coordinator Certificate Training with technical assistance for garden practitioners across the Portland-metro region.
How the programme works
Growing Gardens' Youth Grow programme collaborates with public Title I schools in East and North Portland, combining standards-aligned classroom curriculum in English and Spanish, school learning gardens built by and for students, cafeteria tastings and cooking classes using garden produce, take-home recipe kits and after-school programmes.
Outcomes and status
USDA records list the project as complete. The project's stated goals were educational reach, teen leadership development and regional garden-programme sustainability; detailed measured outcome reporting is available through the USDA project report. Growing Gardens has since continued this work, receiving a further $240,000 USDA award in 2025 under the Food and Agriculture Service Learning Program.
Lessons for other schools
The project shows the value of pairing classroom curriculum with a physical school garden, involving families through take-home kits, and investing in coordinator training so garden programmes outlast a single grant period.