Through the Whole Kids Foundation’s Garden Grant program, schools can turn outdoor spaces into hands-on learning gardens that connect youth with food, spark their curiosity, and support classroom curriculum.
The Whole Kids Garden Grant program provides a $3,500 monetary grant to support a new or existing edible educational garden located at a K–12 school in the United States or Canada. To be eligible to apply for this grant, the school must meet the following criteria: The garden must be located at a charter or public school, including tribally controlled and Bureau of Indian Education schools, or a nonprofit private school. At least ten K–12 children must be engaged in the garden programming on a regular basis, and they must be growing edible plants in their garden.
Key dates: The 2025 Garden Grant cycle will be open from February 5 to March 5, 2025. Grant recipients will receive notification by August 1, 2025. Recipients can only receive a total of two Garden Grants. Packages will arrive in September 2025.
Teachers are invited to attend the free Garden Grant Information webinars for details on the process, the application, and the online grant portal. They can register for the Garden Grant Overview webinar (Thursday, February 6, 2025; 11:00 am to 12:00 pm CST); and/or the Garden Grant Q&A webinar (Thursday, February 20, 2025; 3:00 pm to 4:00 pm CST). Both webinars will take place on Webex.
Grantees may also want to use the Grant Recipient Database to find recipients near them and build a local garden network.
Plus: Whole Kids Foundation provides resources and tips to help schools start and maintain a successful garden, as well as 34 lesson plans to connect classrooms to the gardens. Educators can also bring the student-grown harvest into the lunch line with the foundation’s step-by-step Garden to Cafeteria Toolkit.