Generously Funded By Tops Markets, Ajinomoto Foods, The Raley’s Companies, Cox Enterprises and Delta Air Lines
Captain Planet Foundation’s (CPF) Project Learning Garden Program is filled with opportunities to support inquiry-based, immersive learning experiences in STEAM education for students of all levels and ages. In conjunction with applied principles of project-based learning, school gardens provide teachers and students with outdoor laboratories full of natural phenomena to be observed, explored, questioned, and investigated. Gardens provide meaningful anchors where standard learning objectives merge with real-world experiences, making many of the concepts we teach relevant and relatable to students’ lives.
And let’s not forget the yummy stuff! School gardens are a perfect way to develop young palates for a variety of fresh, healthy fruits and vegetables. CPF’s mobile cooking cart, complete with a Vitamix blender and induction burner, provide educators with everything they need to have a harvest and tasting event in the garden or classroom year round.
Considerations for Eligibility
Welcome to the PLG family
Before beginning this application process, here are a few considerations to ensure your eligibility:
Have you previously applied for a PLG Grant?
If yes, welcome back. We have the information we need from your previous application. Read through the guidelines below.
Use this follow up re-application form. Thank you. If you’re not sure, email us at learninggarden@captainplanetfdn.org.
At this time, PLG is only funding elementary schools.
This includes all schools with students in Pre-K to 6th grade; any grade range and age.
If you are a school with students in grades 7-12, the grant application will not accept these grade levels.
If you have not already done so, fill out our newsletter/info request form and we’ll keep you informed if/when grants become available for middle school or high school.
Are there plans for relocation or major construction at this school in the foreseeable future?
If yes, we highly recommend waiting until after your move or construction is complete to apply for a PLG Garden Grant.
If you have not already done so, fill out our newsletter/info request form and we’ll keep you informed about grants in the future.
PLG Garden Grants support schools who want new gardens and who have existing gardens.
The application will guide you to the appropriate grant choice at this time. If you are awarded a PLG garden grant, we will collaborate again regarding the best grant choice for your school. School garden spaces need at least 6 hours of full sun each day. Garden attributes will be distributed on your time in 2027. Support and guidance is continuous.
What if the city, state, or region where my school is located is not on the list?
If you have been invited to apply by an official member of the Captain Planet Foundation staff, you can use this link.
The “Other” designation in the markets section on the application is for invited schools only.
Otherwise, if you have not already done so, fill out our newsletter/info request form and we’ll keep you informed.
Contest Opens: August 30, 2026
Deadline to Apply: October 16, 2026
- Upstate New York
- Northern Vermont
- Northern Pennsylvania
Contest Opens: September 8, 2026
Deadline to Apply: October 30, 2026
- Arizona
- New Mexico
- Northern California
- Nevada
Within 10 miles of a store or market
Contest Opens: TBD
Deadline to Apply: TBD
Contest Opens: TBD
Deadline to Apply: TBD
Contest by Invitation
Before beginning this application process, read the Considerations for Eligibility.
What You Get with Your Project Learning Garden
PLG SCHOOLS WILL RECEIVE:
- Five raised garden beds
- Soil, Seeds, and gardening tools w/ wagon
- Fully-equipped Mobile Cooking Cart to prepare garden-fresh recipes (includes Vitamix!)
- Access to CPF’s online garden-based lessons, spanning all content areas and grade levels
- Literacy materials and science learning supplies for project-based lessons
- Online professional development and training for teachers
- Strategies for summer garden maintenance
- Eligible for a Sponsor Associate volunteer day for garden installation
PACKAGE VALUED AT $7,500
Garden Materials & Supplies
Project Learning Garden provides schools with easy-to-assemble raised garden beds, soil, and seeds to get you growing quickly. Schools also receive supplies and tools to take learning into the garden.
Garden Beds
Project Learning Garden provides your school with five 4’x4′ raised beds (approx. 80 square feet of total growing space) to get your schoolyard garden started. These beds offer an opportunity for younger students to learn shapes, while older students calculate area, volume, and other measurements.
Each school receives 5 – 4’x4’ square beds (13″ deep).
The kits are manufactured by Gronomics from beautiful, sustainably-harvested, untreated western cedar, which is naturally rot-resistant. Beds arrive ready to assemble with clear instructions for putting them together tool-free. The beds are pre-drilled and ready to receive hardware to support your garden sign (shipped separately). You’ll just need a small wrench to tighten it into place.
Garden Exploration Kit
The Garden Learning & Exploration Kit comes packed with tools, books, and other supplies to help turn any schoolyard into an outdoor learning environment. This kit includes everything from trowels, gloves, and seeds for getting the work done; to hand lenses, literacy tools, and measuring tapes for outdoor learning and exploring.
Garden Sign
Learning can take place in the gardens even when teachers aren’t around! This interpretive metal sign, printed on highly durable material, provides information and activity prompts that connect learning to the gardens for everyone.
Garden Literacy and Learning Kit, you’ll find an assortment of books to support the Project Learning Garden lessons and help you and your students make the most of your Project Learning Garden.
Literacy and Learning Kit
In the Garden Literacy and Learning Kit, you’ll find an assortment of books to support the Project Learning Garden lessons and help you and your students make the most of your Project Learning Garden.
Mobile Cooking Cart
PLG provides schools with a fully equipped mobile cooking cart and recipes to allow easy preparation of produce from gardens.
Mobile Cooking Cart Instructions
There is no better way to get kids eating fruits and vegetables than to make fun and tasty snacks with the vegetables they have grown.
Our stainless steel Mobile Cooking Cart arrives complete with: a Vitamix blender, an induction burner, and all of the pots, pans, and utensils you need to turn vegetables from your gardens into the snacks that students love!
Recipes
Our collection of school and kid-tested recipes provide you with fun, simple, and tasty options that can be easily prepared by kids using vegetables grown right in your schoolyard.
School Garden Cookbook
Conceived and tested by FoodCorps member, Bang Tran, Captain Planet Foundation produced and published this wonderful School Garden Cookbook. This book is full of easy, colorful, and tasty recipes you can cook right in your classroom with produce from the garden. It also has wonderful tricks of the trade for doing tasting events with your students.
Vitamix Recipes
PLG is proud to partner with the Vitamix Foundation to provide a Vitamix blender with each Project Learning Garden mobile cooking cart. The chefs at Vitamix have developed some tasty and fun recipes for produce your students will grow in your schoolyard garden.