Environmental & Community Impact Award

We are thrilled to honor Jane Hirschi with the 2023 CitySprouts Environmental and Community Impact Award.

As the founding director of CitySprouts, Jane has inspired hundreds of educators and thousands of students to discover science in their school garden classrooms. She played an integral role in growing the CitySprouts program from one school in Cambridge to a nationally-recognized program serving 24 public schools in Cambridge and Boston. Please join us to celebrate Jane at our annual event, Dig It! on April 27th.

Jane first began thinking about school gardens over 2 decades ago when her children started kindergarten in the Cambridge Public Schools. She remains passionate about making sure that all children have opportunities for hands-on science education in the garden and the chance to get to know their natural surroundings in their own neighborhood. Jane’s legacy at CitySprouts will live on in the garden classrooms she built, in the teams of educators she mentored and in the countless students who continue to learn hands-on science and how to grow food in their own schoolyards.

Jane received many accolades in her 22 years as CitySprouts’ Executive Director. Under her leadership, CitySprouts was selected as a Social Innovator in 2008 by the Social Innovation Forum in Boston. In 2019, CitySprouts’ program was recognized by Boston Public Schools (BPS) as an exemplary STEM literacy program that makes science more accessible to students. In 2022, Jane received an Inspire Award from the Cambridge Chamber of Commerce.

Jane is also an accomplished author. Her 2015 book, Ripe for Change was instrumental for increasing recognition of school garden education as a vehicle for science learning and student engagement with the natural world. Her new book, We Garden Together launches in March and includes images of CitySprouts gardens. We Garden Together will be in your local library and on the shelves of your favorite independent bookshop in March 2023!

The CitySprouts team is so proud to name Jane as the 2023 Environmental and Community Impact Awardee at Dig It! on April 27th. We hope you will join us, and encourage you to support CitySprouts with a donation to continue Jane’s tremendous legacy as we grow our programs.