10 Million Kids: Why We're Committed to GroMoreGood
By Lindsay LaSala, Corporate and Foundation Communications Manager
At ScottsMiracle-Gro, we believe that good can grow anywhere. This belief drives our corporate purpose to GroMoreGood everywhere. Nowhere is this purpose more evident for me than in our gardens and greenspaces community outreach initiatives.
Over the years, I’ve had the privilege of being on the frontlines of our company’s good work in the community. For seven years, I helped facilitate our GRO1000 program, which supported the creation of 1,000 community gardens across the country. I was able to listen to gardeners’ stories. I observed their neighborhoods firsthand. All of this experience made one thing very clear to me. Community gardens are making a difference in the lives of young children all across America.
Gardens are helping meet the basic needs of families, providing healthy options in food desert communities. They are providing shelter and a safe haven, free of violence, where children are gathering outside of school hours. They are offering solace to children hurting from negligence, fostering positive relationships with other adult role models. And they are providing education and work-based training, teaching children valuable skills that can be used throughout a lifetime.
In the most desolate of communities, the neighborhood community garden is serving as a beacon of hope and possibility to our youngest generation. And at ScottsMiracle-Gro, we know we have a responsibility to help more of these gardens thrive.
That’s why we launched our GroMoreGood garden and greenspaces program in 2019. It is an enterprise-wide commitment to bring the powerful, life-enhancing benefits of community gardens and greenspaces to 10 million children by 2023, especially to the children who need it the most.
We’re realizing this mission through partnerships with organizations like the National Head Start Association, KidsGardening, No Kid Hungry, National Farm to School Network and Major League Baseball. To date, we’ve supported the creation of 390 gardens and connected more than 2.14 million children to gardening and outdoor play. Together, we are growing more good in our communities and creating safe spaces for kids to blossom.
Watch how these special gardens are making a difference in children’s lives:
Learn more about our commitment to bring gardening and outdoor play to 10 million children.
