Along with offering classes, our volunteers work side by side with the inmates in the correction institution’s gardens, providing hands on practical gardening instruction and friendship to incarcerated individuals.
In youth facilities, as well as teaching classes, we build garden boxes and greenhouses which give the youthful offenders the opportunity to have the full gardening experience, which will enhance their appreciation of gardening and the natural world.
More than 1236 inmates have graduated from our Sustainable Gardening Upon successful competition of the Sustainable Gardening class, our students receive a Certificate of Home Horticulture, a recognized Oregon job credential. The Oregon Department of Corrections recognizes Lettuce Grow as one of the most successful and cost-effect programs offered to inmates. While the inmate recidivism rate in the United States is over 70% and in Oregon about 30%, the Lettuce Grow student’s rate is 4%.

In 2019 Lettuce Grow worked with prison gardens to produce more than 228,029 pounds of food for prison kitchens, a benefit to taxpayers and the health of inmates. An additional 10,201 pounds went to local food banks across the state of Oregon.
Since 2010:
- 1,236 Adults in custody have completed the Sustainable Gardening class and receive a Certificate of Home Horticulture through OSU Extension Service.
- 169 Adults in Custody have completed the Greenhouse Management class.
- 460 Adults in custody have completed the Seeds to Supper class.