BGF Announces 2024 School Garden Grant Winners

The giving season is upon us and we are proud to announce the winners of our 2024 Seeds for the Future school garden grants. For the first time in our grant history, we were able to award all 10 applicants with financial requests and/or gardening program support in the form of our hands-on photosynthesis, garden technique, and culinary classes. Another momentous first was receiving our first application from a Baja-based school garden program from across the border. After all of the applications were read, re-read, documented, and tallied, our team ultimately awarded $23,000 in financial and programmatic support to:

Darnall Charter School, Redwood Village

Lexington Elementary School, El Cajon

Chula Vista High School, Chula Vista

Coastal Academy, Oceanside

Lindo Park Elementary, Lakeside

Solana Vista Elementary, Solana Beach

PRIDE Academy, Santee

Kinetessori, Allied Gardens

Mountain View Learning Academy, Alpine

Casa Hogar de Los Niños, Baja California

After reading about each program, it was abundantly clear that, across the board, all of our recipients are truly committed to giving their students the best possible opportunities for growing and learning in the outdoor garden classroom.

Jessica Eves of Darnall Charter School

Darnall Charter School garden instructor and 2024 Berry Good Food Local Food Leader award winner, Jessica Eves, shared, “This grant is going to allow us to make some big moves on our food forest! Thank you!”

On behalf of the Coastal Academy, Kjerstie Bourne wrote, “This generous funding will significantly support our students and enable us to provide hands-on learning in botany, sustainability, nutrition, and teamwork while fostering a deeper connection to the land. We sincerely appreciate your commitment to local, sustainably produced food.”

Our deepest gratitude goes out to all of the community members (guests, event sponsors, volunteers, chef teams, auction donors, BGF board members, and more) who came together to support our annual Seeds for the Future School Garden Grant fundraiser. We’d also like to give a huge shout out to Scoop San Diego for their generosity and unwavering support of our mission and programs. They say it takes a village and we couldn’t have dreamed up a better community to grow a food movement with.