Grow Portland

Mission

🌷🍒 Grow Portland supports schools and communities by facilitating hands-on garden experiences that foster connections to food, nature and each other.

Bottom Line for Portland

🌿 🍎 We believe that access & connection to the natural world should be a right, not a privilege. We help steward gardens and outdoor spaces while providing environmental education, centered on people of color, people who live at or below the poverty line, and those with disabilities. This year, Grow Portland is partnered with 16 public schools, serving over 6,500 students, with monthly hands-on lessons in their school garden. Additionally, we work with seniors in low-income housing to build vibrant, growing & accessible natural spaces and tend them together. Through consistent, rich, hands-on programming and careful stewardship of green spaces, we cultivate resiliency and interdependence with our community.

Quote

🌱 🍁 "The garden relieves stress; it gives environmental awareness about earth, improving health and mental health, gives us fruit and vegetables, community, learning, important to pollinators, gardening cleans air and soil, gardening lowers global warming, it lets you exercise, it can give you a diet, and boosts your mood.” 

- 5th grader
 

🌸 🦋 “Thank you for making gardening and wildlife accessible to so many students! This is such a great program and the kids love it. I also love seeing how other teachers teach and communicate to kiddos. Thank you all for the work you put into this program!” 

- 1st grade teacher

Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion

🌤 🫐 Our actions are grounded in environmental justice, equity, and accessibility to ensure meaningful engagement of all students, families and school personnel connected to our programs. We honor the intersectionality of identities within our organization and school communities in practice and policy. Garden School addresses specific systemic injustices, including a lack of access to fresh, local foods, access to green space, and the availability of quality outdoor education for school-aged children. 

🪺 🌽 We prioritize students who have been excluded from nature and outdoor education, including Black and Brown students, low-income students, and those with disabilities. Garden Educators are compassionate and sensitive to the needs of individual students and aware of how identities intersect and interact. In our land practices and teaching, we aim to work in solidarity and consult with Indigenous communities towards rematriation, recognizing the importance of the maternal relationship to the land. Our goal is to prioritize ecological health, biodiversity conservation, and sustainable resource use, aligning with traditional ecological knowledge and practices.

Incentives

• 🌱 Everyone who donates over $25 will receive a coupon for 15% off your purchase from Left Field Garden Supply

• 🍎 The first 8 donors over $100 on or after Dec 29th (Big Garden Day) will receive a $25 gift card to Portland Nursery

🌼 The first two people to donate over $200 Dec 30-31st will receive a $75 gift card from Foot Bar

Partner(s)

Left Field Garden Supply: Neighborhood shop in SE Portland for gardening enthusiasts stocking seeds, tools, books, organic fertilizer, and animal supplies.

Andina Restaurant: a taste of Peru in the pacific northwest

Portland Nursery has everything you'll need to make your garden and home your favorite destination.

Campana serves old world and new world Italian fare with hand-made pasta, risotto, fish and meat, house-made desserts, an all Italian wine list, and both classic and contemporary cocktails.

Foot Bar PDX offers foot treatment, reflexology, and natural nail care for individuals or groups, 

Dame Collective is a group of cooks, wine geeks, small business owners, and creatives working together to build a more sustainable model of hospitality.

Heavenly Creatures wine bar and bottle shop in NE Portland

Garnish Apparel features an in-house line of limited edition pieces made right here in Portland, Oregon as well as Personal Stylist Appointments and Private Shopping Parties.

Akadi: West African cuisine that authentically represents West African culture through AKADI's food, music, and ambiance, mirroring the gatherings from Ivory Coast roots. Akadi is donating 20% of proceeds from sales on November 1st to kick off our campaign! 

Studio 45 is a PNW based pilates studio. Classes are challenging; instructors and members are welcoming, and you’ll see a transformation in your body in as little as 5 classes.