REBECCA COHEN
Rebecca P. Cohen is a busy person, and happily so. Beyond being a mother, she also a gardening and outdoor lifestyles expert. Rebecca has been in love with the outdoors since she first sat in the family garden as a three-year-old, eating sweet peas straight from the pod. This memory inspired Rebecca to teach others to learn how to garden. After 15 years in the corporate world, Rebecca started her company, Rebecca Plants LLC, in 2007 to pursue her passion for inspiring others to garden, be outside, and improve their well-being. As part of the Sowing Millions Project, Rebecca led seed planting activities at elementary schools across the country. As a result, thousands of elementary school children now have a closer relationship with what they eat, and share Rebeccas passion for growing delicious food.

NEW YORK RESTORATION PROJECT
You may have heard of New York Restoration Project (NYRP) because of their incredible environmental efforts in New York City. Entertainer and proud New Yorker, Bette Midler, founded NYRP in 1995, when she set about removing garbage from Fort Tryon Park and Fort Washington Park in Upper Manhattan - with her own two hands. Today, NYRP carries out Bette's dream of a cleaner, greener New York City. To date, they've removed more than 2,094 tons of garbage from the city's open green spaces; planted more than 430,000 trees through Million Trees NYC; and saved 114 community gardens from commercial development. NYRP's environmental educational programs and community events currently serve thousands of New York City youth, families and educators. As one of our key Sowing Millions Project program ambassadors, NYRP has leveraged Seeds of Change® organic seeds to make a significant difference throughout New York. Our organic seeds have been gifted to over 700 community gardens city-wide from Brooklyn to Manhattan, at corporate and community volunteer days, and to local students to help provide each with freshly grown organic food all year long.

RICE CHILD AND FAMILY CENTER
Seeds of hope are being planted every day at the Daniel F. and Ada L. Rice Child and Family Center in Evanston, Illinois. The only program of its kind in the Chicago metropolitan area, The Rice Center is a residential care and treatment center for children between the ages of 6 to 15 who have experienced severe emotional, behavioral and mental health problems. The center's "Veg Ed" program allows kids to learn about basic gardening and nutrition, work off emotional energy in the gardens, and most importantly, take pride showing others their great work in the garden. As an active participant in local children's programs, Rice Child and Family Center efforts have provided community members and children of all ages with an opportunity to roll up their sleeves and embrace the joys of gardening.

MUD BARON
Meet Mud Baron. As a Master Gardener, he's working to make education greener and healthier for students in Los Angeles and around the nation. Baron's mantra is simple: kids that grow broccoli, eat broccoli. Baron not only reaches the community through education and outreach, but ensures school garden programs are connected to the vital resources and materials they need to thrive.

His efforts surrounding the Sowing Millions Project have led to organic seed planting activities at elementary schools and community gardens across the country. Through his tireless efforts, thousands of people have been given the opportunity to watch their food grow and enjoy fresh vegetables once crops are ready for harvest.

GROWING COMMUNITIES
GROWING COLLABORATION,
BUILDING COMMUNITY
For over 20 years, Seeds of Change® has offered a diverse assortment of vegetable, herb, and flower seed, including favorite heirlooms, rare and traditional crops, and the best modern varieties. Each year we work with organic farmers and gardeners from different parts of the country to test our seeds under many different growing conditions. Our first criterion is flavor; then we look for healthy, disease resistant plants with strong roots and good yields. Working together, our growers help us evaluate and select the top performers, ensuring that only the very best make it into our catalog. We would like to introduce to you a couple of our farming partners who make all of this possible.

JOHN DIERKE
John Dierke is a CCOF certified organic farmer and grape grower near Santa Rosa, California. Nestled in the hills a few miles from the ocean, he has an impressive and highly productive farm that features a large market garden with dozens of lettuces, corn, flowers, herbs and other vegetables.
John works closely with Seeds of Change® Product Development Manager, Terry Allan, to test cool season crops like lettuces and other greens. Having taught research at the university level for more than 20 years, John states, "working with Terry Allan doing this investigative, applied research is fundamental to insure Seeds of Change® customers receive the finest product possible. I am proud to be a member of the Seeds of Change® extended family seed trial team.

DON HANSEN
Another important farming partner is Don Hansen, at Hansen's Coast Fork Farm in Creswell, Oregon. Don grows and sells vegetables and fruits at his on-farm U-Pick and farm stand, as well as to wholesalers, which allows Seeds of Change® to stay in close contact with customers who give us solid feedback on old and new varieties.
Don's long-time organic farm is at the south end of Oregon's famous Willamette Valley, one of the premier seed and crop production areas in the world. "The Willamette Valley is a great place to do mixed trials that look at the characteristics of a variety from both a quality point of view as well as from the perspective of seed production," says Joel Reiten, seed production manager at Seeds of Change®. "The long, warm summers are ideal for high quality seed production and the cool winters deliver just enough cold temperatures to properly vernalize biennials but are not cold enough to cause freezing damage. It's one of the few places in the world where almost any seed crop can be raised." At Hansen's Coast Fork Farm, we grow out the previous year's seed productions to check for quality, and continually select and reselect the mother plants for future seed productions.

Behind every seed packet that we sell is a network of real people growing, tasting and testing our varieties. This collective experience helps us provide you with the highest quality seeds for your delicious, nutritious and beautiful garden. Please join our community and share your feedback, experience, and garden photos with us on our Facebook page: www.facebook.com/SeedsofChange