Macomb Fresh’s mission is to foster the establishment of school-located community gardens to provide not only a healthy food source for school age children, but also nutrition education and other educational opportunities to literally change the next generation’s thinking about nutrition and food production. We encourage you to support the Macomb Fresh program now by purchasing a Growums kit today!

The need for locally produced fresh vegetables continues to increase across Macomb County. Macomb Fresh, a Program of Hope Center in Macomb, intends to meet this need by establishing school-located community gardens. The intent is not only for educational purposes but also to provide fresh produce for the school lunch program and for the surrounding community.

As part of the educational aspect of placing the gardens on school grounds, utilizing the produce from the garden in school lunches or summer school lunch programs is a natural byproduct of the plan.  Children will not only be involved in planting the garden and educated in the importance of nutritional eating habits; they can literally eat the fruits of their labors.  Statistics show that 80% of the children that have a vested interest in the garden will eat the vegetables that they helped to plant and grow.

The garden will be available to community residents, many of whom are the parents of school children, during the summer months when harvest is high, and school is not in session. Any un-harvested produce will be harvested by the master gardener and distributed through Hope Center’s client choice pantry. Thus, no produce will go to waste or be left to rot on the vine.

The long-term goal is to turn responsibility of the garden over to the school/ community. This will promote both local “ownership” of the garden and a sustainable structure for the on-going production and use of the garden. Macomb Fresh will continue to provide advisory support, seed, and starter plants, as needed, thereafter.