Why food gardens?
One food garden can tackle hunger, improve health, support learning, strengthen community, and build climate resilience — all at the same time.
Most social challenges get addressed one at a time. Food gardens are different. That’s why SeedMoney funds them — 3,687 so far, across 52 U.S. states and territories and 65 countries. See our impact, read our annual reports, or apply for a challenge grant.
How gardens change lives
The same small plot does a surprising amount of work — here’s what the research shows.
Food
UN Goal 2 · Zero hunger
Gardens put fresh food within reach of the people who need it most. In one San Jose study, home and community gardeners doubled their vegetable intake during the peak growing season — from 2 cups to 4 cups a day, more than the amount recommended for most adults.
Health
UN Goal 3 · Health & well-being
Gardening bundles nutritious food, physical activity, time outdoors, and social connection. In the first randomized controlled trial of community gardening, new gardeners ate more fiber, added about 40 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity a week, and reported less stress and anxiety.
Learning
UN Goal 4 · Quality education
School gardens turn lessons into something children can see, touch, and taste. A review of 35 studies involving more than 25,000 students found that garden-based programs strengthened children’s knowledge of food, nutrition, and science and improved their attitudes toward vegetables.
Community
UN Goal 11 · Sustainable communities
Shared gardens turn underused land into places where people build something together. Studies link community gardening to stronger social ties, less isolation, and a greater sense of belonging — especially for people at risk of social exclusion.
Women’s empowerment
UN Goal 5 · Gender equality
In many communities, women grow much of a household’s food while having little say in the decisions that shape their lives. In a randomized trial of a homestead food-production program in Bangladesh, women’s agency in agriculture rose to levels similar to men’s — a measured gain in women’s empowerment.
Climate
UN Goal 13 · Climate action
Food gardens are small pieces of green infrastructure. Their plants, permeable soil, compost, and raised beds soak up rainfall and cool developed areas. New York City’s community gardens were estimated to keep 130–143 million gallons of rainwater from becoming runoff each year.
A food garden quietly works on all of them — at once.
Research sources
- Food. Algert, Diekmann, Renvall & Gray (2016), California Agriculture 70(2):77–82. A San Jose pilot in which home and community gardeners doubled vegetable intake from 2 to 4 cups a day at peak season — more than the roughly 2.5 cups recommended for most adults. View study
- Health. Litt et al. (2023), The Lancet Planetary Health. The first randomized controlled trial of community gardening (291 adults): gardeners ate 1.4 g more fiber a day, added 5.8 minutes of moderate-to-vigorous activity a day (about 40 minutes a week), and reported less stress and anxiety. View study
- Learning. Chan, Tan & Gong (2022), BMC Public Health 22:1251. A systematic review of 35 studies and 25,726 students across 12 countries: garden-based programs improve children’s knowledge of food, nutrition, and science and their attitudes toward vegetables (with no consistent change in how much they actually ate). View review
- Community. Systematic review (2022), BMC Public Health 22:1247, on the diet, health, psychosocial, and community outcomes of community gardens: studies generally reported positive psychosocial and community outcomes, although evidence quality varied. View review
- Women’s empowerment. Waid et al. (2022), World Development 158:106001. In the FAARM cluster-randomized controlled trial (Helen Keller International, Bangladesh), a three-year homestead food-production program — gardening and poultry-rearing through women’s groups, with nutrition training — raised women’s agency to levels similar to men’s, with significant gains in self-efficacy, asset ownership, control over income, and membership in influential community groups, measured with the standard pro-WEAI framework. View study
- Climate resilience. Gittleman et al. (2016), Urban Ecosystems, on stormwater runoff for New York City community gardens: an estimated 130 million gallons kept from becoming runoff each year, plus roughly 12–13 million more from compost-amended raised beds. View study
From the ground
What that looks like in real places, in the words of the people growing it.
“The funds we raised with SeedMoney’s support were an anchor of stability in a year full of chaos and funding cuts. In 2024 we gave over 8,500 pounds of produce to our partners — and we’re on pace to match or exceed that in 2025.”
Freedom Farm raised more than $10,000 through the SeedMoney Challenge and distributes thousands of pounds of fresh produce a year to community partners in the Hudson Valley.
“A year ago, the soil in our village lay bare, and many families went to bed with little or nothing to eat. Then Healing Harvest was born. Today, 47 families sit down to fresh, healthy meals every day.”
Healing Harvest trains women in organic farming, building food security and economic independence for 47 families in rural western Uganda.
How SeedMoney works
Funding the gardens others overlook
For more than a decade, SeedMoney has helped communities turn small contributions into thriving gardens through a model we call crowdgranting — pairing small challenge grants with crowdfunding tools and hands-on coaching. It doesn’t just fund gardens; it activates local support around them.
Crowdfunding campaigns
Garden leaders — teachers, organizers, volunteers — raise funds for seeds, soil, tools, and infrastructure. Each campaign is rooted in a specific community with a specific plan.
Challenge grants
Through the annual SeedMoney Challenge, grant dollars multiply local fundraising — stretching each grant further while rewarding community buy-in.
Coaching & support
We guide leaders through goal-setting, storytelling, and outreach, giving first-time fundraisers the tools to succeed and building local capacity that lasts.
For every $1 SeedMoney grants through crowdgranting, $5.50 in total community investment flows to food garden projects — turning modest grants into outsized community impact.
Many of the gardens we fund operate at a scale too small to attract traditional funding — but together, they form a powerful, distributed system of local food production.
For funders
Partner with us
At a time when funding for community-based food systems is under pressure, the need for flexible, grassroots solutions is growing — and demand from communities far outpaces our current grantmaking capacity. We partner with foundations, companies, and major donors to deploy challenge grants that unlock community-led gardens at scale.
Whether your focus is food security, public health, education, gender equity, community resilience, or climate, food gardens deliver measurable results across program priorities. We welcome conversations about challenge-grant partnerships, program-specific funding, and multi-year commitments.