Sowing Seeds

Oct. 15, 2024

The School Garden Workshop expands with help from the Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation.

“I like to do hands-on stuff outside,” says Keyan, a seventh grader at Mansfeld Magnet Middle School in Tucson. And thanks to a $1 million gift from the Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation — a corporate foundation of Sprouts Farmers Market Inc. — more hands-on gardening experiences are on the horizon for Keyan and thousands of other kids.

The gift to the University of Arizona School Garden Workshop, which supports teaching and learning in more than 50 K-12 school gardens in partnership with Tucson Unified School District, will fund the creation of the Sprouts House.

The Sprouts House project will include renovating two university-owned historical houses next to Mansfeld Magnet Middle School. One will become a community classroom and the other a commercial kitchen, while the yards will be turned into a teaching and production garden with a greenhouse. Sprouts House will support 800 middle school students with weekly gardening and nutrition lessons plus 10,000 elementary students with field trips and weekend and after-school workshop programs.

“I’m excited that the new Sprouts House will make it possible to expand our garden by moving it into a bigger area,” Keyan says.

Mansfeld sixth grader Lillian is particularly excited about the new kitchen and cooking classes. “I cannot wait to cook,” she says. “Me and my family cook a lot. Like, we do family dinners and make family recipes. I love cooking.”

Sprouts House is slated for completion in spring 2025.