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Mission
Founded in Oakland in 2013, Growing Together’s mission is to improve the health and sustainability of our communities by greening schoolyards, providing hands-on youth environmental education, planting trees, & increasing fresh food access.
We cultivate long-term collaborative relationships with local schools and develop programming that align with the goals, needs, & values of each community’s stakeholders.
As of 2023, we partner directly with three East Bay school districts and over 30 Title 1 public schools, focusing on four main program areas:
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Greening school campuses
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Establishing hands-on, experiential education programs
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Planting trees on campus and in surrounding neighborhoods
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Improving student and family access to farm-fresh foods
We believe that neighborhood schools are powerful ways to connect a community, not only through place, but through shared aspirations for a healthy living future.
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Story
2013
Community tree planting
Growing Together is founded as a fiscally sponsored project (under PUEBLO), focusing on community tree plantings powered by a large, active volunteer community
2015
First school-based projects
Our team starts to take on more school-based projects, expanding our capabilities beyond tree-planting to include our first youth job training & internship programs and school garden installations
2018
Schoolyard greening & education become core areas of focus
Our original founder Mallika Nair leaves, handing leadership over to Grey Loom and Adelaja Adelugba as co-directors. Schoolyard greening projects & environmental education are added as core competencies for the organization, in addition to continued tree planting, with nearly all of our work happening on school campuses.
2019
Early food access work & new school-facilitated model for tree planting
We start running our first produce stands at a few of our school gardens/farms, seeding our future food access work. We also implement a new model for neighborhood reforestation, helping school families steward trees beyond planting as an educational exercise.
2020
Pandemic response & focus on fresh food access
Pandemic school & business closures force radical program changes, shifting our focus to fresh food distribution. We partner with school districts & private funders to do fresh produce & school meal distribution to thousands of families & seniors across the East Bay every week.
2022
Schools reopen with increased demand for green spaces & outdoor education
After closures, our work in schools and with students resumes. We rise to the increased demand for green spaces & outdoor education at schools, and find sustainable models for continuing our food access programing through Farms to Communities.
Team
At Growing Together, our mission is to improve the health of our communities by creating & maintaining school gardens as hubs for fresh food access, youth education, and mutual aid.
Our work and therefore our team are both intersectional, including educators, landscapers, naturalists, farmers, business operators, & school parents. As a team we have an abundance of specialized expertise in hands-on outdoor education, garden & orchard stewardship, as well as large scale, community-centered mutual aid.
Join our team
Open Positions
Please note that if you are interested in any of our current roles and would like to work more or fewer hours, please check out our other open listings. Many of our roles are modular and can be combined, separated, or mixed & matched to accommodate different scheduling or lifestyle needs.
If you think you'd be a good fit for our team and any of these roles, please send us an email at hello@growingtogetherprojects.org with your contact info, your CV/resume, and the role(s) that you would like to interview for.