Mission Statement
Our mission is to help those in need through a volunteer effort of planting, picking, and delivering fresh produce, via a unique model that: heightens awareness of socio-economic issues, highlights the importance of local farms, and inspires volunteers across many generations and skill sets.

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America’s Grow-a-Row 

Scout Award Project Ideas

Our Vision

Feeding the hungry, while always being the principle foundation of the America’s Grow-a-Row Mission program, is paralleled only by the desire to instill in our kids a mindset of serving those in need.    We want to do our part to help today’s youth develop into a caring and responsible future generation.  America’s Grow-a-Row challenges our young volunteers to spend countless hours nurturing fields of produce, only to give it away to those who need it more.  Our program encourages our youth to work together as a team to achieve ambitious goals for the good of society.

We would like to suggest a few projects that should fulfill requirements for various scout awards and provide a lot of benefit towards feeding the hungry.  Of course, your ideas are very welcome!  This is really meant to get the wheels turning.  The only thing we ask is that you come to us for approval of the project.  This is merely so that we know that we can provide the resources that you need to do it really well.  Also, we want to be sure that if it is an ongoing project, we have the resources to sustain it and keep it successful.

Some Ideas to Consider…

1.     Start a community garden in a low-income area that can be maintained by local residents.

2.     Find a farm that will allow volunteers to glean produce that would normally be plowed under and start a new America’s Grow-a-Row gleaning program.

3.     Find land at your school or church and use it to start your own donation garden.

4.     Build educational materials to teach kids about hunger and poverty.

5.     Build raised beds that can be donated and used by a low-income housing complex, senior center, or handicapped individuals to enjoy fresh produce.

6.     Get to know a local food pantry or soup kitchen and write a report about how fresh produce is available (or not), what types recipients would like, and recipes for how to cook produce on a strict budget.

7.     Survey various local feeding agencies and build a table of information on what needs they have and how we can do a better job of helping them to feed the hungry.

8.     Help a group home or shelter dig out a small vegetable garden to grow produce for themselves.

9.     Build a Kids Page for the America’s Grow-a-Row website with fun facts and ways to help feed the hungry.

10.   Talk to a grocery store about rescuing their “not quite retail perfect” produce and organize a volunteer network to pick it up and deliver it to a local food pantry.

11.   Set up a delivery of fresh produce to shut-ins.

12.   Build a storage shed for gardening equipment.

13.   Use a commercial kitchen to bake or cook with excess produce for donation to food pantries.

Contact: Leena Waite at leena@americasgrowarow.org