Who We Are
School Garden Foundation is a North Carolina non-profit serving schools and child-care centers across the Triangle. We help start new gardens, bring existing gardens back to life, and keep successful gardens growing.
We believe children benefit from having regular opportunities to grow food, get their hands dirty, notice what’s happening in the natural world, and care for something over time.
Our role is to help with the pieces that can make school gardens difficult to start and sustain, from planning and materials to volunteers, activities, and long-term support. The goal is a garden that works for the people using it and gives children meaningful opportunities to be part of it.
School Garden Foundation was founded by Samantha Stringfellow, a registered dietitian and mom of 3 who believes some of the most important lessons about food, health, and caring for the natural world can start in a garden.
Our Mission
We are on a mission to address the root causes of declining physical, mental, and environmental health by helping children form lifelong healthy habits—starting in the garden.
Through our programs, we aim to:
Promote access to whole foods and the confidence to grow, cook, and enjoy them
Inspire movement, hands-on learning, and play in outdoor spaces
Foster positive mental health by building meaningful connections to nature
Strengthen environmental awareness through direct experiences with the earth
We believe that when children learn to care for a garden, they also learn to care for themselves, their communities, and the planet—for life.
Our Vision
We envision a future where every school has a garden—and every child has the opportunity to:
Taste a tomato they grew themselves,
Dig in the dirt without hesitation,
Feel the calm that comes from sitting in the sun beside a pollinator plant.
We believe that when schools become spaces where food, nature, and education grow together, we raise a generation that’s healthier, happier, and more connected to the world around them.
