When we built our very first Good Food Garden, in San Francisco, we poured months of love and research and energy into the garden, but sadly, we never got to meet the kids who would give this garden a home. They live on Treasure Island, which is connected to San Francisco by a single bridge, a bridge that was blocked the day we planned to visit.

So, each month, I look forward to the letters and photos they send to Kendra, who started our Good Food Gardens Pen Pal Program, letters that give us a little insight into the life of our first garden, and the lives of the little ones who have made it their own. But still, I often feel like I'm missing the real picture, having never heard their little voices, or watched their curious fingers explore every green sprout the way I had with the kids in the other Good Food Garden we've built.

A few weeks ago, Kendra came into the kitchen with a box she received from Boys and Girls Club of Treasure Island, filled with their artistic offering of thanks. The whirl of the busy kitchen slowed to a halt as we stood and pulled out more than a dozen little paper plates, stapled together with drawings of the garden, with a yarn tail that held little pictures with words like "Seed," "Sprout" and "Plant," colored in carefully by tiny hands. As we pulled them out, one by one from behind the Styrofoam peanuts, I couldn't help but read each name carefully drawn in colored crayon aloud.  

Jada…Chloe….Vonya…Lakrista….Carolina.

Suddenly, these children became so much more to me than just our very first Good Food Gardeners, or pioneers in a pilot nutrition project. They are little people with names and stories and so much life ahead of them. They are kids who, who like every child, deserve to be surrounded by nourishing foods and experiences so they can live, learn, play and thrive and reach their fullest potential every day.

Thank you, dear reader, and Good Food Garden Ambassadors, for helping them get there.

-Sarah Copeland, Good Food Garden