DuPage County Gets Fourth Graders Growing Their own Tomatoes

DuPage County (Illinois) Farm Bureau's Grow Your Own Food initiative engaged 4,800 students and 187 teachers across the county - and by extension, their families and communities - in a tomato growing project that illustrated how the food on our tables starts on the farm. The initiative also showed the students they could grow their own food anywhere, even in a 6-inch pot on a patio.

In spring 2024, DuPage County Farm Bureau provided each fourth-grade classroom in the county with a video produced in conjunction with the College of DuPage that taught them about farming, plant care, seed production and transplanting. Afterward, each student transplanted a cherry tomato plant and took it home for the summer.

Students were invited to the DuPage County Fair that July to enter their tomato plant in a special judging - and to have some traditional fair fun. All the students who took home a tomato plant received a free ticket to the fair and a ride bracelet, courtesy of the County Fair Association.

The Grow Your Own Food program was supported by nine businesses and organizations in the county and 79 individuals who donated money and/or time to provide the program to every fourth-grade student and school in the county for free. In addition, the College of DuPage not only helped with the informational video that launched the project in classrooms, but the staff and students there also grew the tomato plants for transplanting in their greenhouse.

Though the students didn't receive their plants until the spring, planning, supply gathering and educational material compiling started nearly a year before that. In September, the 4,800 students and 187 teachers were registered and county Farm Bureau volunteers began assembling the teacher supply bags, which included transplanting supplies, student worksheets, instructions and ag mags. In April, the teachers received their training resources via email.

The first full week of May, volunteers gathered daily at the fairgrounds to pick up materials - tomato plants, soil and supplies - to deliver to the schools.

A total of 46 volunteers were involved across the whole process.

Teachers showed the students the 15-minute video and led them in the transplanting activity. Students took their tomato plants home for the summer, along with a growth chart, care instructions, a recipe, an ag mag and the County Fair ticket.

On July 26, 37 students brought their plants to be judged at the County Fair. All the participants received a ribbon and four winning students split cash prizes totaling $600. DuPage County Farm Bureau awarded the teacher with the most student participants a $250 Amazon shopping spree for their classroom, which had been donated.

Beyond the benefits for DuPage County Farm Bureau, which included media coverage, membership growth, an increase in their social media following, and a large uptick in the number of new schools reached through their Ag in the Classroom program, name recognition for partners like the College of DuPage and the DuPage County Fair increased, as did fair attendance.

County Activities of Excellence

DuPage County Farm Bureau's Grow Your Own Food initiative earned the organization a County Activities of Excellence Award. They were among 25 counties invited to display their activity at the 2026 American Farm Bureau Convention trade show in January in Anaheim, California.