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The Dinner Garden Grant
Linda F. Deneher
Boise State University: Ed Tech 551

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Abstract
The problem of hunger in America is widespread and increasing. Every day millions of people
are hungry (United States Department of Agriculture, 2006, 2009). The Dinner Garden, a
nonprofit organization in San Antonio, Texas, is dedicated to fighting hunger by providing seeds
and education to hungry families. Since 2009, 65,000 people have been provided with seeds for a
family of four and education on successful gardening both in person and online through the
Dinner Garden's website. This mission is achieved by connections with prospective grantors
(Appendix A) and the application (Appendix B) and award of grants. This grant application and
supporting documentation is submitted in consideration of an award from the Gardening
Association of America of two, $500 gift cards to garden supply stores (Gardening Association
of America, 2011). The group anticipates using the cards to provide seed packets and
supplemental information to the first 100 of the 50,000 people on their waiting list and the
purchase of an electronic weather station (Home Depot, 2011). The weather station facilitates a
standards-based (Texas Education Agency, 2011) fourth-grade lesson regarding the weather and
adaptations useful for successful gardening in San Antonio, currently experiencing an extreme
drought (National Drought Mitigation Center, 2011).
Keywords: grant, garden, drought

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The Dinner Garden Grant
History
The Dinner Garden’s mission is to reduce hunger in America. They gather and distribute
enough free seeds to provide for the needs of a family of four for one growing season. They have
given away seeds for 65,000 gardens at a cost of $1.79 per garden. Currently, there are 50,000
people on the waiting list for services, which include providing education and online resources to
gardeners. This is of particular importance because the home city of the group, San Antonio,
Texas, is experiencing drought making it even more difficult for novice gardeners to be
successful (National Drought Mitigation Center, 2011) (Appendix C).
Public awareness of the Dinner Garden is facilitated by partnership with Catholic
Charities, Seeds for Food, the Wyoming Food Bank, World Food Garden, San Antonio Food
Bank, Girl Scouts, Boys and Girls Club, and the Salvation Army. Magazine articles about the
group and its mission have been published by Redbook, Family Circle, Woman's World, Urban
Farmer, and American Dog. Most recently, in 2011 CNN named the Dinner Garden's founder a
CNN Hero (CNN, 2011). A solid network of donators includes Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds,
Google, the Good People Fund, ExxonMobil, Organized Chaos, and the Cabot Cheese Co-Op
(Dinner Garden, 2011).
Needs Assessment
In 2006, 22.8 million adults and 12.6 million children lived in food insecure households.
15.6% of households with children reported food insecurity. 30% of households with children
headed by single women were food insecure, and 5.9% of households with seniors living alone, a

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total of 1.6 million, were food insecure (United States Department of Agriculture, 2009)
(Appendix D).
By 2009, numbers and all of these categories increased. 33 million adults and 17.2
million children lived in food insecure households. 21.3% of households with children reported
food insecurity. 36.6% of households headed by single women experience food insecurity. 7.8%
of households with seniors living alone experience food insecurity (United States Department of
Agriculture, 2009) (Appendix D).
The city of San Antonio, Texas, the home of the Dinner Garden, is the seventh -- largest
city in America; the metropolitan area has a population of 2 million people. Average rainfall in
the area is 30 inches per year, but Texas has been in a drought for several years. The area
surrounding San Antonio is rated as D4 Exceptional. (National Drought Mitigation Center, 2011)
(Appendix C). Yearly temperatures range from below freezing to above 100°. The lack of
rainfall and the wide range of temperatures increase the difficulty for gardeners.
Curriculum standards for the state of Texas, Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills
(TEKS) for the third grade, require the presentation of information that can be readily illustrated
in the production and maintenance of a garden. For example, Science Standard (10) (A) requires
students to “explore how the structures and function of plants and animals allow them to survive
in a particular environment.” Standard (9) (C) expects students to: describe environmental
changes such as floods and droughts where some organisms thrive and others perish or moved to
new locations.” (Texas Education Agency, 2011).

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Fourth grade Science Standard (8) (A) introduces the concept of patterns in the natural
world and requires students to “measure and record changes in weather and make predictions
using weather maps weather symbols and a map key.” and be able to describe the water cycle
(Texas Education Agency, 2011. This prior assimilation of background knowledge from
mastering grade three concepts makes a lesson in gardening for fourth-graders ideal.
The growing problem of hunger in the San Antonio metropolitan area can be solved with
support for young gardeners. The Dinner Garden teaches gardeners how to create food,
facilitating self-sufficiency. These free packets and supporting education has been successfully
delivered since 2009. Due to the donation of seeds and work done by volunteers, the final price
of the seeds is only $1.79 per packet for postage. Dinner Garden is community-based and
nationwide serving gardeners in all 50 states. The approach is professional, there is an efficient
mode of distribution of seeds and education, and the director, Holly Hirschberg, has experience
teaching gardening. The Dinner Garden is a cost effective, sustainable solution to hunger.
Narrative: Goals and Objectives
Goal: Increase the ability of the Dinner Garden to provide seeds, tools, and education to
gardeners.
Objective One: To increase distribution of seed packets by mailing packets to the first 100
people on the waiting list by the start of the 2012 growing season.
There are 50,000 people on the Dinner Garden's waiting list. The first objective is to
increase the dinner Garden's distribution of seed packets by mailing them to the first hundred
people on the waiting list by the start of the 2012 growing season. This is achieved by using one

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of the grant awards, a $500 gift card from Home Depot, to purchase the seeds required for 100
packets. Included in each packet is identification of each seed and directions for planting and
growing. Gardeners are instructed to go to the Dinner Garden's website for more detailed
information including recipes.
Objective Two: After active participation in the lesson on the effects of weather on gardens, 15
students in the fourth grade will make at least five changes in the gardening practices during the
2011 -- 2012 growing season so their gardens are congruent with their desert environment.
This objective fulfills requirements for qualification of the grant offered by the National
Gardening Association's 2012 Youth Garden Grants. The gift card from Home Depot will be
used to purchase in the luck trying to a weather station (Appendix E) used in the presentation of
this lesson. The drought in San Antonio has added to the difficulty of maintaining a successful
garden in the desert. Understanding the effects of weather on a daily basis and climate as a
pattern is essential to success.
Gardening practices have a significant impact on the success, or lack thereof, on every
garden. This lesson presents several methods gardeners can use to save water and reduce soil
temperature. Providing a greater understanding of the weather and ways to mitigate it facilitates
yield, thereby reducing hunger.
Method
The first objective is achieved by taking the gift card award to Home Depot and using it
to purchase packages of seeds. The Dinner Garden produces their seed packets by assembling
and re-labeling seeds from larger packets. Excel spreadsheets are used to maintain the waiting

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list, print labels for the seed packets, and growing instructions for each variety of seed. The
group is able to provide the postage for the first 100 people on the mailing list.
The second objective includes a lesson for fourth grade students on the effects of weather
on gardening in the San Antonio area. Discussion of the weather is facilitated by the purchase of
an electronic weather station. The weather station displays temperature, wind direction,
atmospheric pressure, and humidity. Mitigation of the effects of the weather in San Antonio is
shown to be possible when gardeners incorporate specific watering methods, soil management,
and crop selection.
Evaluation
There are two objectives in this project that require evaluation. The first objective is to
increase the Dinner Garden’s distribution of seed packets by mailing them to the first hundred
people on the waiting list by the start of the 2012 growing season. This is evaluated by recording
the number of people on the waiting list before progress towards the objective begins, and
recording it again at the completion of the project. The project is deemed 100% successful if the
total number of people on the waiting list is reduced by 100.
The second objective requiring evaluation is contained in the lesson plan, which is a
required feature in the application for this grant. The TEKS objective states, “After active
participation in a lesson on the effects of weather on gardens, 15 students in the fourth grade will
make at least five changes in the gardening practices during the 2011 -- 2012 growing season so
that gardens are congruent with their desert environment.” Fulfillment of all of the objectives
requires first, that participation is active as opposed to reluctant, there are at least 15 students in

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the fourth grade, they make at least five changes in their practices that adapt their gardens to the
desert, and that it occur during the 2011 -- 2012 growing season.
The lesson includes information on eight different ways that gardens can be adapted for
the desert environment. They are: adding trip irrigation, adding mulch, changing plant varieties
to ones requiring less water, changing the plant design to add shade, changing the garden
infrastructure to add shade, adding edible groundcover, not watering during the day in the
summer, and adding more winter harvestable plants. Student responses are evaluated using a
rubric (Appendix F).
Budget
Objective One: Mailing 100 seed packets.
Item: postage
Quantity: 100
Cost: $179.00
Total: $179.00
Objective Two: Weather lesson.
Item: The Weather Channel Professional Weather Center model WS -- 1611T WC -- IT.
Quantity: one
Cost: $109.00

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Texas state sales tax: 6.25% = $6.81
Total: $115.81
Conclusion
The negative effects of hunger in America is has a significant impact upon children,
whose nutritional needs as they grow are significant. When children go to school hungry, it
makes it more difficult for them to learn. Utilizing grant awards to teach children how to grow
their own food making it possible for them to feed themselves and their families for the rest of
their lives. Awards used to support the dinner Garden allows the group to impact hunger by
providing face-to-face education specifically oriented to gardening in the drought - impacted San
Antonio metropolitan area. The supporting documentation for grant applications is based on
content standards developed and implemented by the state of Texas and can be delivered to a
variety of public and private organizations.

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References
CNN. (2011). Free seeds help Americans get, by, live healthier. Retrieved from
www.cnn.com/2011/US/07/14/cnnheroes.hirshberg.../index.html
Dinner Garden. (2011). The Dinner Garden. Retrieved from http://www.dinnergarden.org.html
Gardening Association of America. (2011). KidsGardening: Helping young minds grow.
Retrieved from www.kidsgardening.org/grants/2012-youth-garden-grants-1
Home Depot (2011). Professional weather center. Retrieved from www.homedepot.com
National Drought Mitigation Center. (2011). Current U.S. Drought Monitor. Retrieved from
droughtmonitor.unl.edu/monitor.html
Texas Education Agency. (2011). Texas Essential Knowledge and Skills. Retrieved from
www.tea.state.tx.index2.aspx?id=6148
United Stated Department of Agriculture. (2006). Household food security in the United States.
Retrieved from www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/ERR49/
United Stated Department of Agriculture. (2009). Household food security in the United States.
Retrieved from www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/err108/err108/

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Appendix A
October 20, 2011
National Gardening Association
1100 Dorset Street
South Burlington, VT 05403
Dear National Gardening Association:
This letter is sent to you from Linda Deneher, the Grants Director of the Dinner Garden, which is
a 501(3)c nonprofit organization dedicated to providing seeds and gardening education to hungry
families in America. Since 2009 the Dinner Garden, partnered with the San Antonio Food Bank,
Boys and Girls Club, Girl Scouts, and the Salvation Army, provided seeds and gardening
education to 65,000 people. Dinner Garden director, Holly Hirschberg, was presented with the
Yellow Rose of Texas Award, and has been featured in Redbook, Family Circle, and Urban
Farmer magazines. Most recently she was named a CNN Hero for her efforts to reduce hunger.
We have a strong infrastructure in place ready to deliver seeds and education to our waiting list
of 50,000 people. The only thing stopping us from immediately serving everyone on the waiting
list is the lack of seeds. With your assistance, we can deliver seeds and education to these
hungry people. Thank you very much for your consideration in this request. We are looking
forward to your response.
Sincerely,
Linda Deneher
Grants Director
The Dinner Garden
P.O. Box 700686
San Antonio, Texas 78270-0686
www.dinnergarden.org

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Appendix B
Contact Information
Name: Linda Deneher
E-mail: linda@email.com
Title: Grants Director
Contact Phone Number: (800) 555-1212
Contact Mailing Address:
P.O. Box 700686
San Antonio, TX 78270-0686
Organization:
Dinner Garden
www.dinnergarden.org
(800) 555-1212
Organization Mailing Address:
One Sandy Place
San Antonio, TX 78270
Shipping Address:
P.O. Box 700686
San Antonio, TX 78270-0686
Program Information Part One: Demographics
1) Start up or established?
Established Garden

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2) Does your program have a special emphasis? Please check any that apply and explain in the
Project Overview section:
Nutrition/Hunger
3) What type of organization are you?
Nonprofit Agency
4) How many children/youth from each age group will participate directly in the garden
program?
Ages 9-11 (grades 4-6): 32 (one class)
5) How many hours per week on average will a participating child/youth be involved in
gardening activities?
One hour per week per participant
6) If applicable, please indicate the number of children/youth who will benefit indirectly from
the garden program without being involved in a direct, hands-on way:
This number cannot be directly calculated. All of the siblings of the students involved in
the lesson benefit as do everyone who is a recipient of a seed packet.
7) What is the gender and cultural/ethnic makeup of the population served by your gardening
program?
Population data is not collected for people on the seat database. The students served by
the lesson are equally divided between male and female and the population is
predominantly Latino.
8) What percentage of direct participants are eligible for free/reduced cost lunch programs?

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All of the direct participants are eligible for free/reduced cost lunch programs.
Program Information Part 2: Leadership
9) List the individuals in your program's leadership team and describe each leaders experience in
gardening with kids:
Holly Hirschberg has delivered lessons to students through the Girl Scouts, Boys and
Girls Club, and the Salvation Army. She has prepared gardening information designed for
children in these programs and misinformation is also included in the seed packets.
10) Community members, organizations, and businesses that actively support your garden
program the material donations and volunteer hours:
Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, the Good People Fund, Exxon Mobil, Cabot Cheese Co-
Op, Organized Chaos
11) How does/will your program make a difference in your community?
The problem of hunger in America impacts the lives of millions of children. The Dinner
Garden makes a difference by reducing hunger in the metropolitan San Antonio area by
teaching families how to garden. Do the donation of seeds and volunteers’ time, the
Dinner Garden delivers seeds for a garden that will support a family of four for one
growing season for $1.79 per packet for postage. Education provided to elementary
school students facilitates positive interaction in the gardening process, which increases
the potential for successful harvests.
12) When did planning for your youth garden first begin?
2008

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13) When did children/youth first begin gardening at your site?
2009
14) How do you plan to sustain you program in the future, (e.g., ensure ongoing maintenance and
leadership; Build partnerships; find sources and/or funds for plant materials, services, tools,
etc.)?
The group has partnered with Catholic Charities, Seeds for Food, the Wyoming Food
Bank, World Food Garden, San Antonio Food Bank, Girl Scouts, Boys and Girls C., and
the Salvation Army. Magazine articles about the group and its mission has been
published by Redbook, Family Circle, Woman's World, Urban Farmer, and American
Dog. Most recently, in 2011 CNN named the Dinner Garden's founder a CNN Hero. A
solid network of donators includes Baker Creek Heirloom Seeds, Google, the Good
People Fund, ExxonMobil, Organized Chaos, and the Cabot Cheese Co-Op. The Dinner
Garden has the ability to make itself known to the public through publications, and has
developed a network of companies willing to donate seeds and others willing to donate
postage. This combination of public awareness and seeds will reduce hunger for everyone
served.
Appendix B: Grant Application. This grant is offered annually by the Gardening Association of
America.
Gardening Association of America. (2011). KidsGardening: Helping young minds grow.
Retrieved from www.kidsgardening.org/grants/2012-youth-garden-grants-1

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Appendix C
Appendix C: Drought Map. This map shows drought conditions for the metropolitan San Antonio
area on October 18, 2011.
National Drought Mitigation Center. (2011). Current U.S. Drought Monitor. Retrieved from
droughtmonitor.unl.edu/monitor.html.

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Appendix D
Appendix D. This chart demonstrates the increase in the number of Americans experiencing food
insecurity.
United Stated Department of Agriculture. (2006). Household food security in the United States.
Retrieved from www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/ERR49/
United Stated Department of Agriculture. (2009). Household food security in the United States.
Retrieved from www.ers.usda.gov/Publications/err108/err108/

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Appendix E
Appendix E. Weather Station. This image and description is the Weather Station used in the
lesson that accompanies the grant project.
Home Depot (2011). Professional weather center. Retrieved from www.homedepot.com.

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Appendix F
Active Number of Grade Number of Before End Evaluation
Students Changes of 2012
Growing
Season
1 Yes 1/15 4 7 Yes 100%
2
3
Appendix F: Rubric. This table shows the first four rows of the rubric designed to evaluate
Objective Two.