Growing Gardens

10/09/2026

As part of our role as Regional Education Coordinators for the Oregon Farm to School Network, we hosted a plant distribution last week for the Portland Farm and Garden Educators Network, a collective of over 600 local folks dedicated to getting students access to food and garden education.

With the help of our powerhouse greenhouse team and donations from local nurseries we distributed:

🌱 1,325 plant starts and
🫘 200+ seed packets and cover crop seeds to
🙌🏻 17 different schools and partner organizations who together reach over
👧🏽 9,235 students, preschool-high school in the Portland Metro region.

That’s in addition to the 1,734 plant starts that went out to our ten partner schools and 3,600+ students. 🤯

It is a crazy time to be alive and feeling, but we are inspired by the work of this community and what we can accomplish together. 💕

10/05/2026

Volunteer day with the incredible team at Junior League of Portland . THANK YOU for helping our greenhouse manager Whitney Jacques with preparing our BIG greenhouse for fall and winter. 🌱💚🍂❄️

10/02/2026

🌱 GROW A MOVEMENT with Ｒａｄ　Ｍａｇｉｃ!🌱

Go grab a delicious Mama Đút | Plant-based Vietnamese Inspired Recipes pork belly breakfast sandwich from Ｒａｄ　Ｍａｇｉｃ! $2 from every sandwich will be donated to Growing Gardens! Available NOW, while supplies last. 🌱🤗

10/01/2026

THANK YOU Jack Johnson and All At Once for welcoming us to your amazing show at Edgefield Concerts. We had at A TIME meeting your fans and sharing a bit of our work!

09/28/2026

The Youth Grow team recently visited Bonifacio Garden, one of our local farm partners and the source of fresh produce for most of our cafeteria and take home kit ingredients this school year! During our visit, we had the opportunity to meet with farmer Ricardo Miranda, who has partnered with GG for the past several years to provide locally grown, fresh, and culturally relevant foods to our students and families in our programs. Ricardo grows a variety of crops, with a particular passion for growing foods that are meaningful to the Latino community. Ricardo shared more about his farming practices, the crops he chooses to grow (like chilacayote which is a food he grew up with in Southern Mexico), and some of the challenges he currently faces as a small Latino farmer- mostly due to the current administration. We are excited to deepen our connction to the person and place behind the food we share with students and we hope to uplift Ricardo’s amazing work!

09/23/2026

3rd year program graduation/celebration! Did you know that our Home Gardens program is a 3-year cohort that learns to grow their own food at their homes! Yes, it is- it is free to all participating families and last night we held a Gardener Graduation to celebrate the families that just completed their 3rd year with us. We had amazing food from Villas Market, and Alberta St. Market with fantastic produce from Bonifacio farm. It was the perfect way to usher in the change of seasons- congratulations to all the gardeners and cheers to fall. 🌽🥕🧄🌶️🍅🍁🍃

09/22/2026

What an incredible evening.
Thank you for supporting Chef In Your Garden and helping us celebrate 30 years of Growing Gardens. It was wonderful to see so many people gathered around the table to share food, stories, laughter, and a vision for what we can grow together.

Thank you to Kelly Rae from Portland Flower Farmette & Floral Design Studio for setting the stage with a beautiful display of locally grown flowers and produce for our evening of celebration.

A VERY SPECIAL THANK YOU to The Chinook Indian Nation Canoe Family for opening our evening with heart warming music to ground us in peace and care.

We enjoyed an incredible meal from Chef Alexa Numkena-Anderson of JAVELINA: INDIGENOUS DINING , welcome bites from Chef TJ and welcome drinks fromTJUN RICE and Chef Jawaher SUN RICEer , a sweet finish fJawaherf Suzette Fulay of FOMO Rice , with fresh locFOMO Ricee provided by Maxi of Mr. Farms LLC & microgreenMr. Farms LLCeston from Portland Microgreens.

We Portland Microgreenscross Growing Gardens’ programs, celebrated the people and communities behind this work, and reflected on just how much has grown over the past 30 years.

Most of all, we got to celebrate with you.
To our guests, chefs, farmers, volunteers, sponsors, partners, board members, and the Growing Gardens team who worked so hard behind the scenes: thank you for making Chef In Your Garden possible.
Our wonderful photographer, Celeste Noche , captured sCeleste Noche joy and connection we felt throughout the evening. Here are a few of our favorite moments. 💚

07/20/2026

🐝🍯We found our queen bees! 🐝 What a wonderful beekeeping workshop we had with Jacobsen Salt Co. to learn about hands-on beekeeping. Our team got on bee suits, got into the hives and we were about to find our queen! In addition we gave some gardening advice on what to plant in this lot for increased pollinator habit to feed our bee friends. ????? ⁉️❔ Challenge for you all- comment below on what you think would be the best 🌱 or seeds here for pollinator habitat- but keys are only irrigation from rain 🌧️ (no access to water) can’t be deep rooted, and needs to thrive in hot, dry, poor soil quality. ☀️. GO! Don’t worry, we’ll comment what advice and plants we debated on

07/14/2026

07/07/2026

What if school lunch looked like this? 🥗🌼

As the school year wrapped up, students at Scott Elementary celebrated one of our favorite traditions: the end-of-year garden salad tasting.

Every leafy green and edible flower on these salads was grown by students in their school garden. (The toppings were purchased to round out the meal.)

The best part wasn't just the fresh food. It was the pride. Students eagerly pointed out the vegetables they had grown, encouraged friends to try new flavors, and celebrated a harvest they helped create.

When children have the opportunity to grow food, they build more than gardening skills. They develop confidence, curiosity, and a meaningful connection to the food on their plates.

Now that summer is here, we're looking back on these joyful moments and celebrating everything our Youth Grow students accomplished this school year. We can't wait to see what they'll grow next.

🌱 Here's to growing healthy eaters, confident gardeners, and thriving communities, one school garden at a time.