Garden in a Bag: Growing Together
Funded by Blue Zones Project Palm Springs in collaboration with Esperanza’s Second Chance Sanctuary and Prema’s Permaculture & Composting
A Community Takes Root
This weekend, something beautiful took root in Palm Springs. Blue Zones Project Palm Springs funded a collaboration between Esperanza’s Second Chance Sanctuary and Prema’s Permaculture & Composting to help community members grow their own food, one bag at a time.
Together, we distributed Garden in a Bag kits, a 3-gallon grow bag filled with homemade compost, nutrient-rich soil, baby plants of salad greens, herbs, and flowers, along with nitrogen-fixing seeds for companion planting. Each kit included a simple tray: fill it with water, let the soil soak, and begin harvesting in about 15 days.
When I joined the Blue Zones Food Policy Committee, I wanted to do more than talk about local food. I wanted to redefine it. The question became, how local is local? Our answer was simple: teach people how to grow a potato while giving them a potato.
This event marks the beginning of that idea in action, making homegrown food accessible, joyful, and part of daily life.
Diane Morales of Blue Zones with her Garden in a Bag
Impact
By Numbers
100 Garden in a Bag kits planned
72 community members went home with their own mini gardens (67 official sign-ups and 5 community giveaways)
Each garden will start producing harvests in about 15 days, proving that local food can grow right where we live
Partner Highlights
🌻 Esperanza’s Second Chance Sanctuary: a nonprofit farm in Sky Valley that rescues animals with community garden beds, composting, and models regenerative farming.
🔗 Esperanza’s Second Chance Sanctuary
🌾 Urban Conservation Corps Fellows of Southern California Mountains Foundation: developing young adults for careers in urban conservation and sustainable land stewardship.
🌎 Climate Action Fellows: A state-funded program that supports full-time work on California’s climate-resilience goals.
🔗 Climate Action Fellowship
💙 Blue Zones Project Palm Springs: A community-wide initiative that helps residents make healthy choices easier through food, movement, and connection.
🔗 Blue Zones Palm Springs
The Bigger Question: What If Every City Could Do This?
As event season unfolds across the Coachella Valley, imagine the impact if each city funded community-based Garden in a Bag projects.
Instead of buying distant carbon credits, local governments, event organizers, and sponsors could invest directly in 1,000 Garden in a Bag kits per city per year (I dream big), turning climate funds into living, edible assets for families in underserved neighborhoods.
Each kit is more than soil and seeds. It is
a lesson in self-reliance
a hands-on climate action
a local economic opportunity for composters, growers, and educators
Your Feedback Matters
This project is growing from the ground up, just like the compost we turn and the communities we serve.
If something in this issue resonated with you, sparked a new idea, or challenged your thinking, I would love to hear from you.
You can reply to this email or connect with me on LinkedIn