About the Program

At Whole Kids, we know that the more kids know and feel connected to their food, the more curious they become about how things grow or taste, and the more willing they are to try new foods. This is why we believe in edible garden learning spaces!

Our 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 U.S. or Canada. 

*We are so excited to announce that this year, Newman’s Own Foundation will offer an additional monetary grant to select U.S. recipients that opt in via our Garden Grant application. If selected, this would be in addition to the Whole Kids’ $3,500 award. Learn more in our application!

Eligibility

To be eligible to apply for this grant, the school must meet the below criteria:

• Garden must be located at a charter or public school including tribally controlled and Bureau of Indian Education schools or a non-profit private school
  • Support organizations working with multiple school gardens should apply separately for each school site.
• Engage at least 10 K-12 children on a regular basis in garden programming
• We prioritize awarding applicants who serve a majority of students who are under resourced. We trust applicants to make that decision for themselves and then give applicants an opportunity to explain or give context to how they do within the application— even if that’s just within the context of the garden grant program. As such, your context could apply to the specific students you serve, low support of the garden, the nutrition landscape of your community (high rates of chronic disease / food desert), etc.
• Be growing edible plants in your garden
• Eligible to re-apply for a second grant if your previous funds were received in 2023 or earlier. Completion of Progress Report on previous grant required to apply again.
• Be located in the United States (including US controlled territories) or Canada

*Recipients can only receive a total of two Garden Grants.

To Prepare

You can find a copy of the 2025 Garden Grant application here along with a new eligibility flowchart here.

All final applications MUST be submitted online via SmartSimple but we share the application PDF as a way for you to prepare and get started! Make sure to check out our SmartSimple tutorital video for a quick how-to for using the application software.