Since 1995, City Sprouts has maintained community and family gardens in our half-acre demonstration plot at 40th and Franklin Streets in the Orchard Hill Neighborhood of North Omaha.

We work with Omaha area residents and volunteers to grow vegetables, flowers, and herbs using environmentally responsible and sustainable gardening techniques. We provide a comfortable setting where people of diverse ages and backgrounds can work outside together.

The mission of City Sprouts is:

• to build local food systems
• improve community health
• empower neighborhoods
• strengthen economic viability and sustainability

We help Omaha neighborhoods, civic groups, schools, youth groups, and residents develop lasting, productive green spaces.

Our current analysis of our mission includes the following elements:

- We are centered at City Sprouts and our service is to the general Omaha area

- We are building mutually supportive relationships around a common goal

- We engage in working with appropriate partners

- We are an education center for sustainable gardening

- We share skills of simple living

Our larger vision is to work with Omahans to build local food systems, improve community health, empower neighborhoods, and strengthen economic viability and sustainability.

Over the years, City Sprouts has helped establish community and family gardens at various Omaha neighborhoods, such as Gifford Park, Leavenworth, and at churches, community centers, and neighborhoods.

In addition to improving food quality and security, neighborhood gardens enhance community identity and pride. According to many studies, recreational gardening confers significant health benefits.

In 2005 and 2006, we completed a major garden redesign at City Sprouts to build raised beds, improve the grading of the garden, to build more accessible paths, and to plant a variety of beautiful, native trees, flowers, and shrubs. Rebecca Anderson led this project, with the help of many individual donors and organizations.

Also in 2005, we were generously given a house next to the garden at 4002 Seward Street.

The house is used for storage, office, classes, and other gardening, educational, and community activities. If you have a group that would like to meet at the house, please contact us.

In 2009, we first began preparing the new Decatur Street Garden for cultivation. This half-acre site is just 1.5 blocks from the original City Sprouts garden. Projects at this garden are oriented more toward food production capacity, in contrast to our more educationally oriented family gardens on Franklin Street.

There are many volunteer opportunities for special projects all year around. We send out irregular e-mail notices of garden news; for current information, please contact board secretary Ellen Duysen at ellen.duysen@unmc.edu

We are a corporation directed by a board. We are also a 501(d)(3) not-for-profit charity. We are members of the American Community Gardening Association, the Omaha Council of Garden Clubs, the Nebraska Statewide Arboretum, the Nebraska Sustainable Agriculture Society, and the Nonprofit Association of the Midlands.