Benjamin with Bella, Queen Farm Dog

Grow Your Lunch was founded by educator, farmer and entrepreneur Benjamin Eichorn who grew up on Country Flat Farm, an organic and biodynamic farm, in Big Sur, CA.

As a kid, Ben wasn’t exactly fond of farming and gardening.  In fact he was much more interested in the animals that his family raised: goats, chickens and horses.  After a college education, travels throughout Latin America, and four years working at one of the nations most preeminent garden education projects (see: the Edible Schoolyard),  Ben founded Grow Your Lunch in 2010 with the intention of raising awareness about food and the environment through the development of education and production edible gardens.

As an undergraduate, Benjamin studied urban agriculture in Havana Cuba and observed diverse models of urban food production. The most impressive models he witnessed were garden plots adjacent to schools, hospitals and government offices where members of these various communities participate in growing, preparing and eating the food they grow.

A Cuban Organoponico

Participating in this most basic act of sustaining the health of their communities gives students, hospital patients, and government employees a sense of purpose and pleasure, leading to higher academic achievement, rehabilitation and healing, and productivity, respectively. Engaging prisoners in this type of work has also shown to be effective in decreasing rates of recidivism.

As a Gardening Teacher at the Edible Schoolyard in Berkeley, CA, Mr. Eichorn contributed four years to the development of a world-class gardening and culinary arts curriculum on the site of Martin Luther King Jr. Middle School, the largest public middle school in Berkeley. Inspired by the philosophy and vision of chef Alice Waters of Chez Panisse Restaurant, the Edible Schoolyard demonstrates the effectiveness of experiential, hands-on education, sustainable food production and the pleasure of eating food grown just steps away from the kitchen (or the pizza oven!).

In the Fall of 2009, Benjamin had the idea to take the Edible Schoolyard “on the road,” so to speak.  The dream was to create educational and high yielding gardens for institutions like schools, prisons, convalescent homes and corporations.  Since the official founding of Grow Your Lunch in the Spring of 2010,  we have designed, constructed or otherwise advised on the development of no fewer than sixteen gardening programs throughout the state of California (see the “Projects” page for more details).

Ben with Students at the Edible Schoolyard