USDA People's Garden

Secretary Tom Vilsack began the People's Garden Initiative - named in honor of President Lincoln's description of USDA as the People's Department - in 2009 as an effort to challenge employees to create gardens at USDA facilities. It has since grown into a collaborative effort of over 700 local and national organizations all volunteering together to establish community and school gardens across the country. The simple act of planting a garden can help unite neighborhoods in a common effort and inspire voluntary, locally-led solutions to challenges facing our country - from hunger to the environment. The majority of garden construction, maintenance, harvest, data gathering, information sharing, is done by volunteer students, teachers and master gardeners. They've built over 2000 gardens, volunteered 222,000 hours and harvested over 3.9 million pounds of produce donated to local food banks.