Seed to Supper Project

A Beginner's Guide to Low Cost Vegetable Gardening

Seed to Supper is a comprehensive beginning vegetable gardening curriculum designed for adults gardening on a budget. The program has been adopted by Cornell Cooperative Extension of New York State as a shared program of Oregon Food Bank's Learning Gardens. Partners across New York, including CCE Master Gardener Volunteer Programs, are working to train volunteer Garden Educators who will then teach the Seed To Supper curriculum to interested community members. The courses highlight practical, low-cost techniques for building, planning, planting, maintaining, and celebrating the harvest of a successful vegetable garden.

The Seed to Supper project in New York State is partnering with New York Food Banks and Extension offices to support more food secure communities; increasing access to garden produce to provide healthier food choices.

The Seed to Supper curriculum focuses on low budget strategies and provides a springboard for making connections among community program partners (Host Agencies) and between Program Participants.   The beginning gardening course gives novice gardeners the tools they need to connect with others in community, grow in confidence and successfully grow a portion of their own food on a limited budget.

Description of Roles and Responsibilities with Seed to Supper

     Program Participants:

1. Attend 5-6 session S2S course. (All sessions are free!)
2. At completion of course, receive a print copy of the NYS Seed to Supper curriculum.
3. Learn about building healthy soils, planning, planting, caring for and harvesting your garden.
4. Enjoy nutritious recipes provided by course facilitators.

    Garden Educators

1. Lead/ Facilitate classes for program participants at community host venues.
2. Must complete a comprehensive preparation training, which are usually a one-day intensive program.  Training builds the educator’s skills working in teams and provides instruction on how to effectively engage diverse adult audiences.
3. This is a volunteer position, and can be customized within any county within the original guidelines from the state.
4. Work with the Host Agency of a S2S Course to provide Program Participants with a survey to record their opinions on the experience. Share the information collected with satellite partner.

     Host Agencies:

1. Responsible for providing venues for S2S courses they agree to host
2. Play a critical role in the recruitment of program participants from their community. Work with Satellite Partner to identify Garden Educators to assist in teaching course chapters.

     Satellite Partners:

1. Organization(s) who is responsible for the county-based Seed to Supper Programs.
2. In their county, recruits and prepares Garden Educators
3. Matches trained volunteer Garden Educators with Host Agencies.
4. Provides support and course materials to Host Agencies and Garden Educators.
5. Provides summary of all efforts in their county region (including with host agencies) and any pre-& post-participant data to New York State Satellite Partner – Cornell Garden Based Learning.

NYS Seed to Supper Roles and Responsibilities

Seed to Supper Host Agency and Satellite Partner Agreement

 

Seed to Supper Roles and Responsibilities

If interested, contact CCE Erie to learn more about how to become a trained Garden Educator, or how to participate in a Seed to Supper course. If you are a current Master Gardener volunteer, you may earn service hours by serving as a Garden Educator or facilitator. 

Contact Sharon Bachman at (716) 652-5400 ext150, sin2@cornell.edu.

Last updated February 27, 2024