Today marks an important day for the company’s GRO1000 Gardens and Greenspaces Program. For the first time, a GRO1000 grant was awarded in Latin America to benefit a community in San Pedro, in the Mexican state of Nuevo Leon, near Monterrey City.
The GRO1000 grant will improve and beautify the entranceway to Jesus M. Montemayor Elementary School, a public school located in San Pedro, with native plants and pollinator-friendly gardens and landscaping. San Pedro is along the migratory route of the Monarch butterfly, which flies to Mexico each year for hibernation in warmer weather. As part of the GRO1000 Pollinator Promise initiative, a focus of this project is to create habitats where monarchs and other pollinators can thrive.
GRO1000 grant funds will also create edible gardens in the school’s courtyard, allowing its 430 students to experience gardening in a fun, hands-on manner while learning more about nutrition and growing their own food. GRO1000 will provide for an irrigation system to be added to the school’s property to allow for sustainable watering practices.
“Having grown up in Mexico, it is very special for me to return with the GRO1000 team to help bring edible and pollinator gardens to Jesus M. Montemayor Elementary School,” said Eduardo Lara, ScottsMiracle-Gro Latin America Sales and Marketing Lead. “The gardens will benefit the community for years to come and help local children and their families learn more about healthy eating, nutrition and gardening.”
The Mexico event kicks off the 2016 GRO1000 Gardens and Greenspaces Program and is one of several events being held in the U.S., Canada, Mexico and Europe in 2016. Stay tuned for more information on these projects as the GRO1000 team travels to each location this Spring and reports back on the greening process!
