One Seed

We are an organization that is passionate about the emotional and physical well being of foster youth. This passion stems from the founder's experience as a former foster youth. Carissa has legally adopted her younger brother out of the foster care system and has spent the past few years committed to helping him see some of their experiences as an advantage rather than a great hindrance. Carissa has been inspired by her brother's ability to improve his grades, become more self aware, and reduce his anxiety. She now hopes to utilize One Seed's mentoring program to transform the lives of many more foster youth!

One Seed Plant a Seed, Empower a Mind About- Foster Children teaching you and your neighbors how to grow food together and share it. Mission- To mentor and connect foster children with foster care alumni and the community through gardening and food education. Description- The gardening portion of this organization is largely inspired by the "Food Is Free Project". "Food Is Free Project" (501c3 nonprofit) was launched in January 2012. This project builds gardens for free out of salvaged materials that would otherwise be headed to the landfill. They teach people how to build the gardens and encourage them to share their knowledge and their food with their neighbors. "One Seed" plans to emulate "Food is Free Project" with the help of our volunteering foster children. We will teach foster children about our broken agricultural system, what food is, and how to eat and live a healthy and sustainable life. We will teach our foster children to take on roles as leaders in the community by teaching adults and their peers about food and gardening. A vision of "One Seed" would be to grow children who are: -Respectful of others - Helpful and kind - Socially mature - Strong decision makers - Civilly responsible Most importantly, we want to provide a strong connection to the community of adults and children who need their help in order to make a difference. We want to inspire family connections through food. Foster children who participate in our mentoring and volunteering program may be eligible for scholarships or grants that will pay for a pre-college camp, adventure camp, or other approved activities. The goal of our mentoring program is to encourage independence, eliminate learned helplessness, eliminate victim mentality, and to create young leaders.