Katie’s Krops
It only takes a seedling!
That’s the motto of Katie’s Krops, a charity founded by a 10-year-old girl to fight hunger in America. Katie’s grass-roots vegetable gardens grow produce that is donated to local soup kitchens and food banks. Katie’s goal is to start 500 gardens in all 50 states, and we want to help! So we are donating a portion of the proceeds from select vegetable varieties directly to Katie’s Krops. Park Seed has donated over $10,000 since 2015!
Want to participate? Choose products marked with the red symbol to the right.
Park Seed is Honored to Partner with Katie’s Krops. Read her story below.
What a difference a garden makes! When she was in third grade, Katie grew a 40-lb cabbage, donated it to a local soup kitchen, and was surprised to learn that it had helped feed 275 people. Katie’s passion for feeding the hungry from her garden was born.
Katie has started many vegetable gardens in communities far beyond her own. Her charity, Katie’s Krops, has a goal of starting 500 gardens in all 50 states. We at Park Seed are partnering with Katie’s Krops to help those in need. Below you will find vegetable varieties marked with this symbol . We will donate a percentage of the price of each packet of these seeds directly to Katie’s Krops. That way, you can be part of the Katie’s Krops movement too!
In 2020, when the world shut down, we knew that we needed to step up. There were individuals out of work, children who were no longer receiving free and reduced lunches, and families reaching out to us who had previously never faced food insecurity who were struggling to put food on the table. We knew that we needed to change the way we operated: we could no longer host in-person dinners, we could no longer have large groups come to volunteer in the gardens. But we needed to increase our efforts, and we did just that.
Now, in 2021, we are proud to reflect on the difference we were able to make in 2020, and are excited to continue and make an even bigger impact in 2021!
-Since March of 2020, we have served over 22,000 healthy free garden-to-table to-go meals, more meals that we have previously served in the past 5 years combined!
-We created a new way for families across the country to grow a healthy end to hunger with our Seeds of Change program, which we have launched again in 2021!
In 2020 our Seeds of Change Program:
- Engaged 302 families
- Engaged 112 kindergarten students
- Shipped seeds to 23 states and Canada
- Shared over 2250 seeds packets
-When students could no longer attend school in-person, and our school gardens were at-risk, teachers across the country stepped up by individually manned their school's gardens to keep them growing and producing to feed their students and community.
-With a tiny team of volunteers, we built out a large scale garden to produce thousands of produce pounds.
-Our young Growers across the country developed a new way to serve their communities. In Rhode Island, children donated seedlings to local food pantries for at-risk families to start their own gardens. Growers set up social distance free farmers markets to safely help families in need.
-In January 2021, we added 75 new Katie's Krops Growers across the United States who will be growing a healthy end to hunger in their own backyard
-We opened an outdoor classroom for children and families to experience learning in a safe, socially distant and beautiful outdoor setting; teaching classes such as math, science, gardening, yoga, arts and crafts and hosting a story time in the garden.
We're excited to see what the future holds, and we are so grateful for your support in helping us grow!
