Officially launched in January 2021, Food Grown Home is a community-driven project that aims to address food insecurity in Montgomery County, Maryland by providing food rescue for at-risk households and empowering individuals to sustainably grow their own food at home through horticulture education. This project was developed by the sustainable lifestyle brand MetroGreen Style in collaboration with the nonprofit organization Family Learning Solutions, with support from the Audelia Community Response Team, a mutual aid network based in Prince George's and Montgomery County.

How our project works: When you become a grower with the Food Grown Home project, your household will receive all necessary growing materials delivered safely to your door at no cost, including seeds/starters, reusable containers, soil, and any other supplies needed for the product. You will be provided with instructions on how to grow each product and our team will provide troubleshooting support for any growing issues.

We only ask in return that growers take photos and videos documenting the growing process and the foods they use their products in so that we can have a ‘growing’ portfolio for Food Grown Home!

Our only requirements are that participants live in Montgomery County, are willing to take photos/videos of their growing products and share them with us, and are able to commit to at least three growing projects with us. While our applications are first come, first serve for those who qualify, our team takes care to consider and prioritize low-income and food-insecure households. Growers who fall under one of these at-risk categories can request to be connected to the food-rescue program organized by our partner the Audelia Community Response Team or another local food-rescue organization in MOCO- Our team will pass on their information and try our best to get them connected to a food-rescue source.

Ever since our team announced that we were recruiting new households for growers in Montgomery County on February 4th, 2021, we have received an unexpected outpouring of support and enthusiasm from our county residents, with over 65 applications and over 220 total persons interested in participating. We are humbled and thrilled with the amount of people who see the potential in our food growing project and wish to revolutionize their lifestyle to be more sustainable and eco-friendly. As we are currently a team of less than 20 staff members and are a relatively new project, we have reached our maximum capacity of growers for now and have had to temporarily close our application survey. We plan to open applications in the near future; however, we are seeking financial support to make this happen and expand our project to include more Montgomery County residents.

Your donations will go toward:

• Helping us pay for gas for our food rescue/growing package deliveries
• Helping us pay for food rescue packages for food-insecure households
• Helping us hire more drivers to carry out increase volumes of deliveries
• Helping us pay for more growing supplies and expand our range of growing products
• Helping us expand our team to include more dedicated staff members
• And more!

To stay updated on our food growing project and get notified when applications re-open, we invite you to follow us on social media at @foodgrownhome on Instagram and Twitter.