Join us and our partners and be part of Plant a Seed Day on March 20th, 2019

[Tweet this: How @kimbal and @biggreen are going to get 1 million families planting a seed on March 20th, 2019. 🌎🌱 Join us! plantaseedday.org ]

Emma, a fifth grader in Chicago, has been fighting hunger for as long as she can remember. One day, finding only a small bag of rice and a handful of beans in the cupboard — barely enough for one meal — she changed the equation. She took the beans and planted them in her backyard. Sprouts began to grow, and soon Emma and her family had more beans than they knew what to do with. Planting seeds sparked a change in Emma. She saw how she could take charge of her family’s health and future. In April 2018, Big Green built a Learning Garden at Emma’s school on the South Side of Chicago. Emma is now a leader in the garden, teaching her peers how to plant seeds and grow their own food at school just like she does at home.

I want to create a future with millions of kids like Emma. Kids who plant a seed, take action, and change their world. Today Big Green is announcing Plant A Seed Day — a global movement taking place on March 20th, 2019. Plant a Seed Day’s mission is to inspire families across America — and the globe — to experience the magic of growing your own food. By combining forces with like-minded organizations, companies and advocates, families from all walks of life will get more connected and excited about real food — food they can trust to nourish their bodies and the planet.

Big Green is working with national and international distribution, brand, and sponsorship partners to get over 1 million seeds to families for March 20th, 2019. We are excited to work together with our partners to help us achieve of our goal to get one million families planting seeds this spring. If you or your company want to join the movement, you can get involved here. I can’t wait to announce our partners early next year.

Today Big Green is launching Plant A Seed Day on March 20th, 2019. Our mission is to inspire families across America to discover the magic of growing their own food.

Why plant a seed? The incredible impact of kids growing their own food goes beyond anecdotal evidence to real results. Recently Big Green teamed up with the University of Colorado Denver and asked them to independently evaluate how planting seeds and growing food impacts children. The researchers interviewed teachers, principals, and students. They observed our team at work in the schools, our students in the classroom and in the Learning Garden.

Researchers found that students who have the opportunity to get their hands dirty in a Learning Garden and participate in growing food themselves are more open to tasting the produce that they grow. After just one semester of Big Green programming, 55 percent of students demonstrated significant growth in how much they liked vegetables. The good news didn’t just stop at liking vegetables. 53 percent of students showed growth in access to vegetables at home, meaning they were taking the lessons learned in their school Learning Gardens and bringing it to their families. Kids were more likely to ask their parents to buy and prepare them vegetables, go shopping with their parents for their favorite vegetable, and pick out their favorite vegetables at the store. By planting seeds, kids are thinking differently about food.

School gardens have been widely shown to benefit students, especially those in low-income communities. They bring a source of fresh, real food into food deserts and food swamps and give kids a chance to see and truly understand where their food comes from.

An 8th grade teacher in Memphis, Tenn., recently told our team at Big Green what planting seeds has done for her students:

“By planting seeds, watching their garden grow, and finally harvesting the food they’ve tended to is such an amazing learning experience. Teaching kids how to tend their own gardens and prepare their own food in the future is invaluable. I love to see the joy on my students faces when they see the fruits of their labor.”

At Big Green, when my team works with a new Learning Garden school, we encourage teachers to have their students draw out their dream garden. It’s one of my favorite activities because this is when the magic begins. Kids will draw unicorns watering tomato plants, banana trees growing next to their school, or plants that talk, walk, and water themselves. The creativity and energy put toward creating a dream garden is endless. Soon the children realize the real magic of a garden is in planting a seed, watering it, caring for it, and watching it grow.

Planting a seed is the first and powerful step to making a big change in food education. We have seen this critical step taken thousands of times in the schools we work with through Big Green. On March 20, 2019 we will bring those magical moments to millions of children. Join me.

[Tweet this: How @kimbal and @biggreen are going to get 1 million families planting a seed on March 20th, 2019. 🌎🌱 Join us! plantaseedday.org ]