CitySprouts

CitySprouts is a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization based in Cambridge, Massachusetts, that partners with public school teachers and other school staff to develop school gardens in public school communities in Boston and Cambridge.

Background
CitySprouts began in 2001 when a small group of parents, a teacher and a school principal came together to create a schoolyard learning garden that would be accessible to every child in their school. They were motivated by a variety of factors. They knew there were too few opportunities for urban children to explore their natural environment. They felt public school teachers’ need for more hands-on, experiential learning, especially in science. Lastly, they shared concern about children knowing little about food systems, including where their own food came from.

CitySprouts quickly developed an on-going collaboration with Cambridge Public School science department to ensure strong connections between the district’s school learning gardens and its STEM curriculum. By 2009 the CitySprouts program had expanded to every K-8 school in Cambridge Public School District. In 2012, CitySprouts began building an equivalent sized cohort of school partnerships in Boston Public Schools. CitySprouts soon launched a school garden-based summer and after school program for middle schoolers based on science, technology, engineering and math (STEM) practices through an ecosystems and food systems lens.

In 2018, CitySprouts announced an early learning initiative in partnership with Boston schools.

Both Cambridge Public Schools and Boston Public Schools have contracts with CitySprouts that provide a significant portion of the program’s operating expenses. CitySprouts is a charter member of the Boston Public School Portfolio Opportunity, organizations vetted for program quality and alignment with the district’s goals. CitySprouts was selected as a charter organization in the BoSTEM education, innovation & research initiative in 2017.