Enter to Win the Project Learning Garden Contest

Healthy eating is more than just a set of individual actions; it’s a way of life.

At Heinen’s, we believe that this starts with knowing exactly where our food comes from. In partnering with local farmers and forming longstanding relationships with growers, producers and artisans all over the globe, we take the guess work out of grocery shopping.

Our commitment to promoting healthy lifestyles expanded in 2018 when we partnered with Dole and Captain Planet Foundation to spread the message of hands-on healthy eating by gifting elementary schools in our Cleveland and Chicago neighborhoods their own state-of-the-art learning garden. We are thrilled to team up again to kick-off our 4th annual Project Learning Garden contest.

Dole and the Captain Planet Foundation share in our belief that developing healthy eating habits begins long before we start grocery shopping on our own. It’s a lifelong process that starts in childhood as we discover and expand our palates and taste preferences.

The Project Learning Garden contest brings this belief to life. Beginning August 17, 2021, Cleveland and Chicago elementary schools and accredited after-school child care facilities can enter to win a Captain Planet Foundation Learning Garden complete with a schoolyard garden, gardening and lesson supplies and a fully equipped mobile cooking cart, among other tools, for a one-of-a-kind hands-on learning experience.

Project Learning Garden was created in 2011 as a multi-disciplinary nutrition education-based initiative under the leadership of Captain Planet Foundation, an organization that advocates for today’s youth becoming great agents of change. The Captain Planet Foundation saw a need to develop a well-rounded program that allowed children to learn the importance of healthy eating using all five senses. Their learning gardens take lessons of healthy eating outside of the classroom by providing students and teacher’s materials for growing, cooking, tasting and learning about healthy foods, which results in expanded palates and a strong foundation for making healthy food choices.

Dole’s commitment to promoting healthy eating in local communities, through their famously-delicious fruits and veggies, makes their partnership with the Captain Planet Foundation the ideal Project Learning Garden team. Since the start of their partnership, Dole and the Captain Planet Foundation have gifted hundreds of learning gardens to elementary schools nationwide.

Several of those learning garden reside at elementary schools in Cleveland and Chicago as a result of our past three contests. We worked with Dole and Captain Planet Foundation to help the students at each winning school install and open their garden with a harvest celebration where students, faculty, corporate representatives and city officials planted the first vegetable seeds and tasted a delicious homegrown salad. Today, the gardens are thriving as students, teachers and parents tend to the growing plants both during and outside of school hours.

Over the last several years, these students have used their gardens to support curriculum topics beyond hands-on healthy eating, such as weather patterns, geometry and biology, proving that the avenues for learning are simply endless.

We’re excited to be joining the team for a fourth year to help bring Project Learning Garden to more Cleveland and Chicago neighborhoods. Help us give local children a strong foundation in healthy eating by entering your school into the Project Learning Garden Contest.

Interested in entering to win a Learning Garden for your school? Here’s what you need to know:

Who can Enter?
All schools (K-5), or accredited after-school child care facilities in Ohio or Illinois and in the service area of Heinen’s Grocery Store.

*Excludes home school and online schooling programs.
*Entrants must be 18 years or older and an official or affiliate of the school.

Where to Enter
Click here to submit your online entry.

When to Enter
The contest will run from Tuesday, August 17, 2021 – Thursday, September, 30 2021.

*Finalists will be announced in October 2021, followed by the announcement of winners in November 2021. Learning Gardens will be installed at a time convenient for each winning school in 2022.

How many entries can I submit?
Limit one (1) entry per school or accredited after-school child care facility.

*Click here to view and print full contest rules.