OUR STORY
Like most Teach for America alumni, Adam Zmick and May Tsupros first taught in under-resourced high schools. Their experiences working in food insecure communities lead them to realize how vital healthy food was to their students' growth, both in and out of the classroom. 

After one of May’s students, a high school senior, couldn’t identify a blueberry, she began to consider what her students were eating. Through first-hand observations, she witnessed how lack of healthy food was an obstacle to her students’ success. May needed a way for her students to take ownership of their nutrition.

Adam worked with a student who struggled in the classroom but flourished outside in the school garden. On the last garden day she was quite upset and worried her new school wouldn’t have a garden. It was then that Adam knew: no matter where a student goes to school, everyone should have a garden program.

In the fall of 2013, Adam and May met and joined forces to, just months later, found Gardeneers. Designed to give students in food insecure communities equal access to healthy fruits and vegetables, Gardeneers is dedicated to school garden education in Chicago.