Powering Community Gardens Across the US

At SPI, we believe that everyone deserves access to healthy, nutritious food. In the US, we focus on community and school gardens as a way to provide nutrition education and build food justice for those that have limited or no access to fresh produce. We do this to make a small dent to the fact that 44 million people in America suffer from hunger. 

We work with community partners to distribute high-quality vegetable seed and other garden resources to make these gardens a possibility. From free seed libraries in partnership with Public Libraries and Departments of Health, national and local nonprofits, school districts and more, we lower the logistic burden of getting gardens off the ground. 

Right now, as 2024 begins, we are reflecting on our impact as an organization this past year. In 2023, we distributed 186,399 seed packets to organizations in the US–enough seed to grow 616 tons of food, or 6,788,651 vegetable servings. That’s a whole lot of fresh food directly into the hands of those that need it most: low-income families throughout America. 

One of our longest US partners is the Society of St. Andrews, a national organization dedicated to bringing people together to harvest and share healthy food, reduce food waste, and building caring communities. With Society of St. Andrews, we worked with over 47 recipient organizations in 32 cities across 12 states. Thanks to them, seeds are being disbursed that will grow to impact thousands of hungry Americans. These seeds grew gardens in schools, churches, low-income and section 8 housing communities, homeless shelters, community centers and more. 

Your support makes this work a reality. While we focus many of our efforts abroad with communities in need, we also know that there is great need in our own backyard, and we are grateful for your support in changing that reality.