OSU gives away free seeds for sixth year

(FEBRUARY 6, 2025) Grow This! Oregon Garden Challenge is a special program of Oregon State University. The program gives away seeds. This is the sixth year of the program. This year, it is working with the Oregon Bee Project and Territorial Seed Company.

Individuals, schools, and groups can receive seeds kit through the mail.  This year’s goal is to mail seed kits to 3,300 individuals or households and enough classroom kits to reach over 45,000 classroom students and their teachers, said Lauren Tobey, Food Hero coordinator.

The seed giveaway has been growing since it started in 2020. In 2024, an estimated 120,000 Oregonians participated in the Grow This! Oregon Garden Challenge by growing seeds at home and in school and community gardens. 

About 1,360 classroom kits were distributed to 440 schools or Head Start Early Learning programs, reaching 40,500 students. This was a 31% increase from the previous year in new schools and Head Start programs participating. The program distributed over 4,500 individual/household seed kits.

Of the returning participants from the 2023 challenge, 89% said they planted seeds, 75% tasted what they harvested from their home gardens, and 93% reported an increase in using their garden harvest in a meal.

“We want to grow food together and share gardening tips and experiences to learn together,” Tobey said. “[Our] bottom-line goal is to increase fruit and vegetable intake and access among all Oregonians.”

Throughout summer and fall, participants will receive a monthly Grow This! Oregon Garden Challenge email with gardening information, harvest recipes and storage tips. Challenge information will also be available in English and Spanish on the Food Hero gardening page.

The individual/household kits will include a seed for a flower and seeds for vegetables that can be made into a salad plus a pollinator friendly seed packet. The seeds were purchased at a discount from Territorial Seed Company, which is based in Cottage Grove. 

The Grow This! Garden Challenge originated with 800 household kits in response to increasing requests to Food Hero about growing food at home as the pandemic started. The project continued to grow in interest and partnerships and has resulted in many households and teachers and group leaders who request the seeds every year.  

(The video below is from 2023, but it still provides interesting information about this special program.)