Burpee Home Gardens Launches Grow Anywhere Tour

By Karli Petrovic|July 16, 2012

Burpee Home Gardens launched its Grow Anything initiative at the 2012 OFA Short Course. This new initiative features a Grow Anywhere Tour in which the newly wrapped Burpee food truck travels around the country, providing fresh vegetables and vegetable plants to people who do not have access to fresh produce.

“We asked ourselves, ‘How do we bring [vegetables and plants] to these areas,’” says Diane Hund, director of marketing for Burpee. “Easy, we put it in a food truck.”

This 13-week tour will make stops in 25 cities where food deserts, or places where there is a fairly dense population and nowhere to get fresh produce, are common. The tour begins in March 2013 and will distribute approximately 13,000 plants and 40,000 pounds of produce.

Burpee is also working with local growers in each city to get vegetable plants that will grow well in the areas the truck visits. Hund expects a lot of tomato, pepper and cucumber plants to be distributed. Burpee intends to enlist Gen Y interns to drive the trucks and blog about the experience. But, she maintains that everyone can help support the initiative.

“Find the truck and get involved. Donate plants, time or enthusiasm,” Hund says.