Kids, parents, grandparents, and community members came together for the Fall 2023 and Spring 2024 planting activities at three City of Miami Child Learning Centers: Eaton Park, Lemon City, and Moore Park. These events were part of the city’s award-winning Ready, Set, Grow! gardening program, which blends engaging gardening activities with essential nutrition education for children.
Susana Peñaranda and Yaredly Hernández Robles, UF Master Gardener volunteers and employees of the City of Miami Department of Human Services, founded Ready, Set, Grow! to inspire a love for gardening and healthy eating. They collaborated with Solina Rulfs, PSE specialist with the UF/IFAS Extension Family Nutrition Program (FNP), who supported the program by providing soil, seasonal plants, and expert guidance for planting activities that brought parents and kids together. Daniella Voltaire, FNP nutrition educator who previously taught hands-on nutrition lessons at all three centers, joined the Spring 2024 planting events, offering valuable nutrition education at Lemon City Child Learning Center.
City of Miami Mayor Francis Suarez attended the Fall 2023 garden reactivation event at Eaton Park, showing his support for the program. At the same time, Peñaranda and Hernández Robles launched the Happy Seeds Project, a seed library at Eaton Park, allowing families to take seeds home to start their own gardens, and later expanded to all three
centers.
Ready, Set, Grow! continues to bring families together in the garden, empowering the next generation to grow, learn, and thrive.
“My daughter gets excited when it’s Green Day because she gets to plant a seed, touch the soil, water the plant, and watch it grow. This was a wonderful idea to allow my preschooler the opportunity to learn about plants and take part in the process.” — Parent at Moore Park Child Learning Center
