Written by Burpee Home Gardens Team. Burpee Home Gardens was a Supporting Sponsor of The Edible Garden.

Getting kids to make healthy food choices can be a struggle. One of the best ways to encourage children to eat more fruits and vegetable is to provide them with a sense of ownership and understanding of where their food comes from. Children-focused vegetable gardens are a great way to start.

In 2010, Burpee Home Gardens was happy to sponsor a handful of community and youth gardens all over the United States through its “I Can Grow” initiative. We saw the excitement in the participants’ eyes, and we were honored to be a part of programs like The New York Botanical Garden’s The Edible Garden, where the interest in cooking with home-grown produce was celebrated.

Now we’re thrilled to be offering even more chances for youth- and education-focused gardening programs to get the funding and plants they need to be successful and fun. The 2011 “I Can Grow” Youth Garden Award will support and sponsor urban school and community youth gardens with vegetable and herb plants, garden layout expertise, event promotion, and of course money for supplies!

Learn how to apply for this award below.

What Do These Have to Do with Helping Solve the Climate Crisis?

Anna Lappé is author of Diet for a Hot Planet: The Climate Crisis at the End of Your Fork and What You Can Do About. She will give a talk at the Garden as part of The Edible Garden’s Food for Thought series on August 19 at 7 p.m.

A few nights ago, I watched the sky darken over the East River while I listened to clucking chickens peacefully pecking on the roof of a loft in Greenpoint, Brooklyn. Eagle Street Rooftop Farm is just one of the rooftop farms sprouting up across the city, bringing to communities fresh food and the opportunity to get our hands in the dirt.

Eagle Street, all 6,000 square feet of it, has only been around two growing seasons, but it already boasts a loyal following. A dozen families are members of its CSA; hundreds of kids have munched on its peppers and tomatoes; and from 40 to 65 volunteers a week have dug in its raised beds. The place is buzzing with life and, the day I was there, newborn rabbits, who earn their keep with droppings used for fertilizer.

Eagle Street is just one of the reasons I’m not feeling so blue these days. In the face of mounting environmental catastrophes—from global climate change to a dead zone in the Gulf of Mexico that swells to the size of New Jersey every year—there’s a lot to feel depressed about. These crises can feel far removed from our daily lives and from our control. But with every choice we make about where get our food, how we support sustainable solutions in our cities, we are helping to heal the climate. read more »