Super Sprouts
How Might We Empower Equitable Food Access Through Agricultural Education?
Super Sprouts, an all-inclusive multicultural gardening experience designed to ignite a love for gardening in children. Through the Stanford Design for Extreme Affordability program and a fellowship through the Stanford Social E-Lab, I collaborated with San Jose non-profit Valley Verde to bring this vision to life, driven by the desire to share the magic of gardening with as many people as possible. Super Sprouts is a mini gardening kit paired with an online learning library, carefully crafted to connect kids to our food system and our world. Our goal is to inspire a new generation with a deep understanding of the importance of sustainable, multicultural gardening. With Super Sprouts, children embark on a journey of discovery and empowerment.
I led the extensive user research and co-design efforts with Valley Verde, and leveraged my design & education expertise to create a product that truly engages children. The program features a physical mini-garden kit, complete with rotating multicultural seeds, soil, a water pipette, a journal, and more. Alongside the kit, our online learning library provides comprehensive guidance on nurturing seeds from germination to harvest. This work goes beyond teaching children how to care for their own garden. Our educational content delves into topics such as our food system, food justice, our multicultural world, and sustainability. By understanding the broader context of plants in our world, children become empowered agents of change.
Super Sprouts has already made a significant impact. Through user testing and beta testing with real kids and families, we refined the kit to perfection. We manufactured over 300 kits for our summer pilot program and successfully closed our first sale to a 5th-grade classroom in Santa Clara County. Witnessing the excitement and growth of these young gardeners has been immensely rewarding.
We handed off the product to Valley Verde, empowering them to market and sell the Super Sprouts kits and curriculum on their website. The program is perfect for teachers seeking a well-developed curriculum to kickstart gardens in their schools and parents looking to provide their children with an educational enrichment activity at home. Learn more at valleyverde.
