The Grow This: West Virginia Gardening Challenge, a project of the West Virginia University Extension Family Nutrition Program, is preparing to boldly go where no other seed giveaway has gone before.

The program launched its eighth year on social media recently with a new space-themed campaign, “Growing for the Good of All,” featuring new seed varieties, a new seed distribution system and a new round of competition. Growers will compete for thousands of dollars in grant funding.

“In certain parts of the state, buying fresh fruits and vegetables can seem as difficult as putting a man on the moon,” said Kristin McCartney, Extension specialist and SNAP-Ed coordinator with the Family Nutrition Program. “But we want to empower West Virginians to grow their own food share the extras with friends and neighbors and create a more stable food economy in our state.”

Grow This participants will distribute seeds for chives, mesclun lettuce and pickling cucumbers in 2025. They’re available to any West Virginia resident who fills out a short online survey.

Participants will then pick up their seeds at one of over 200 community partners across the state. Partners include many local WVU Extension offices local libraries community organizations and county Family Resource Network offices.

“It’s been a daunting task to ship tens of thousands of seeds each year. That has been a big challenge for our program. But now, participants won’t need to wait on the mailman,” McCartney said. “We also hope that by collaborating with these organizations we can foster more community connections among our growers.”

Those local connections could prove important, because Grow This is also bringing its competition — the Grow This Throwdown — back for 2025.

The county-versus-county competition launched its first season in 2024. Participants completed a series of challenges, like starting seed libraries and donating seeds to fellow growers, to earn thousands of points for their counties. At the end of the growing season, the top three counties received grant funding to make healthy improvements to their communities.

First place winner Preston County received a $10,000 grant at an online awards ceremony in November. Second place finisher Pocahontas County won a $7,500 grant. Berkeley County won third prize, a $5,000 grant sponsored by the West Virginia Nursery and Landscape Association.

Grow This has been providing free seeds to West Virginians since 2018. The program was relatively small for the first few years but exploded in popularity during COVID-19 lockdowns. In 2024, the program provided seeds to nearly 100,000 West Virginians.

“Growing your own garden is one small step toward food security. But if enough of us join together, it will be a giant leap for West Virginia’s food economy,” McCartney said.