Our Mission

Cultivate environmental stewardship through hands-on garden and food education for urban children and their communities.

About Green Thumbs Growing Kids

Most of our work takes place on school grounds, as a community-based partner with the schools. We promote food literacy and environmental education in our programs. We support student learning in elementary schools by creating, maintaining and teaching in gardens developed on school property and to which students have regular access. In summer, the community is invited into the garden for a variety of programs suited to all ages, including youth green job training.

The school gardens are a variety of settings such as native/naturalized plantings, meadow ecosystems, native tree species, and small-scale agriculture including production of kid-friendly small fruits and vegetables, aerobic/thermal composting and worm bins. When the weather gets cold, we bring the garden inside through classroom workshops on topics related to food and the environment. In early spring our programs move to a City of Toronto greenhouse, where children and youth start the seeds for their gardens.

We have a Partnership Agreement with the Toronto District School Board, and currently serve three schools in a deep-engagement model and a number of other schools on a workshop-based model, as requested.