Sow It Forward: Grow the GOOD!

The USA which wastes its yardspace on grass and stuff needs to wake up and start growing its own food. It is crucial for health to eat food as much closer to the source as much ossible.

This is something we must die for fighting !!! Our right to feed ourself as we want in our own yard !!!

This is awesome! Wow!!!

This is one of the most single most important initiative on planet earth. We need to be re-educated and supported to grow our own food. This will have a dramatic impact on many of the major issues confronting humanity today. Please support this initiative by Kitchen Gardeners International.

Thanks, all, for your votes!

Dear Roger, many thanks for coordination and valuable information. It’s a very nice work for food security through out the world. Greetings, Kashif

Here's hoping this goes through! It's a brilliant idea and well worth supporting as the kind of activity that America desperately needs just now. As for the below comment regarding funds going to personnel and admin costs, I'd like to say that worthwhile efforts don't magically happen. Volunteering is a beautiful thing, but there's nothing wrong with paying someone a living wage to do good work. Such activities spawn more economic activity and eventually lead to communities with sustainable economies that are pleasant places to live. Those admin and personnel costs make that a reality, and that to me is even as beautiful a thing as fresh vegetables or rows of canned tomatoes for winter chili.

Wonderful work! Bringing food security back home and teaching our future generations where their food comes from (and it ISN't a laboratory or production line!) is one of the best investments in our global future.

Common Ground school in New Haven, CT, is exactly the kind of school with a garden that could benefit from this outreach.

Thank you so much for your great work!! Stefani

By way of a neighbor's new dog's paw prints, I was prompted to put up a garden fence this year. . What pleasure I have now in my little sanctuary Plants lining the fence,,a bit of wicker trellis here and there suddenly I have a refuge. The stress melts as I open the gate and am surrounded by my plant companions. We had a great time together getting wet and refreshed via the garden hose on those oppressive days so far this season. The rewards are great and now comes the sharing.

By way of a neighbor's new dog's paw prints, I was prompted to put up a garden fence this year. . What pleasure I have now in my little sanctuary Plants lining the fence,,a bit of wicker trellis here and there suddenly I have a refuge. The stress melts as I open the gate and am surrounded by my plant companions. We had a great time together getting wet and refreshed via the garden hose on those oppressive days so far this season. The rewards are great and now comes the sharing.

By way of a neighbor's new dog's paw prints, I was prompted to put up a garden fence this year. . What pleasure I have now in my little sanctuary Plants lining the fence,,a bit of wicker trellis here and there suddenly I have a refuge. The stress melts as I open the gate and am surrounded by my plant companions. We had a great time together getting wet and refreshed via the garden hose on those oppressive days so far this season. The rewards are great and now comes the sharing.

Getting outside and tackling your own vegetable growing is good for you as exercise, good for the soil, and good food at the end, especially if you follow organic lines

Seeds For Change in Canada agrees wholeheartedly and that's why grow healthier neighbourhoods through community and school gardens! We are taking root and implementing 2015 new edible garden plots for the 2015 Pan Am Games so we're definitely on the same page!

Teaching kids to grow and care for plants and to grow their own food is lone of lifes most important and fundamental lessons. One of the best ways to take the power back from the greedy corporations and give it back to our own hands is to produce our own food. Start young and save lives, suffering and disease by promoting gardens in schools and communities:)

GARDENS are GREAT!!!! Last year I had so many Green Beans I couldn't eat them all. So I blanchd and froze them for the winter. I ran out sometime in March and was forced to buy some from the store. YUCK!!!! Can't believe how much better mine (even the frozen ones) were. Unfortunately many of todays youth will never know what REAL FOOD tasts like. We have to push on with this Home Gardning Movement and educate our youth. Teach them that a little work really pays off in the long run. Gardens are Great for the Spirit Mind and Body. By the way Spirit Mind and Body are the 3 sides of the YMCA triangle. Something I learned from my Father a long time ago.

I believe that the garden in question is an outstanding example for the rest of us. I am astonished (perhaps I should not be) at the narrow-mindedness of the council that wants to bulldoze this garden. Shame on them! More people should be encouraged to do the same thing and take the useless patch of grass out of their front yard and do something positive w/it. I am inspired by this and just amy start some "waves" of my own in the town I live in. Game on!

Amen to that Gayle......

Amen to that Gayle......

How anyone can think that this Wonderful Idea is "bad", is probably selling Overpriced Crap at the Supermarket.........WE have to think differently about our eating habits and realize that FOOD MATTERS....... Start seeing HEALTHY FOODS as GOOD MEDICINE, because that's what it truly is......And ........ There is nothing like HOME GROWN.......

This is an excellent idea to help revive the American tradition of gardening. So few people today have knowledge of gardening when just a few generations ago it was an integral part of rural American life.

We at The Ark Institute are thrilled to be partners with Kitchen Gardeners International on this campaign. We are donating our seed at no cost to KGI in order to help Roger get our non-GMO, heirloom seeds and educational materials into the hands of those hungry and needing gardners-to-be. We may not be able to fix the world's problems, but if we can help to decrease hunger, obesity, poverty, famine, and poor health, we are eager to contribute! Contrary to what some people may think or say, this is NOT the same program as others are offering. We are building a pay-it-forward program where our seed donor recipients will have shown the ability to not only grow their food but plans to pay it forward to their communities and loved ones. To anyone who doesn't know how much is involved in distributing seed around the country and even the globe, try successfully mailing some seeds to states or countries around the world. Yes, it takes lots of administrative, legal, shipping, and other costs that don't get considered. The grant we're hoping for here is to handle the cost of doing the good we want to do, and we all sincerely thank you for your votes! Jason & Kristin The Ark Institute www.arkinstitute.com

Basically a grand idea, hence the reason there are so many similar programs going on in the world, and in the USA. But this sounds to me like an awful lot of funding goes to "redistributing" commodities, "Admin costs" and "personnel costs" which in essence have nothing to do with the stated purpose of this grant contest, which is "Share how you plan to create social change in the great outdoors". I do not see how "redistributing, admin costs, or personnel costs" accomplish that goal in any such way. BTW, planting good food is a bit of a stretch to imagine it being true exercise.

Hey Matt. I, respectfully, beg to differ on a couple points! If you've ever started a garden before, it is actually quite physical work. The data I've seen is it's common to burn 300-500 calories an hour gardening depending on the task being done. As for how we'll use the grant, we'd love to regift it out to gardening groups working on the ground but the contest rules don't allow for that. That said, I think getting seeds and supplies out to 40-50 groups across the country to dig new gardens and expand existing ones and reaching 4000-5000 people total (100 average per project) very much fits the criteria for social change in the outdoors. There are more steps and work involved in doing this than you might realize.

In these days when so many resources are becoming unaffordable & scarce, kitchen gardens are a creative, productive response. There's even a kitchen garden at the awhit House & a book about it by Michelle Obama & the White House Chefs.

Fresh food is so rare that many people don't know how a fresh vegetable or fruit actually tastes. Let's help people eat well by growing fresh!

Wonderful <3 Totally supported by me : )

I love this idea! You are awesome!

Excellent idea! I will volunteer to help "get the word out" once you win the money!

That's the spirit, Annie!