Poe Center for Health Education - GrowWELL Garden

The Poe Center for Health Education is a private not-for-profit organization that educates North Carolina’s children, youth, and their families about health topics and the importance of leading healthy lifestyles. Our mission is to educate and empower North Carolina’s children, youth, and their families to make choices that increase positive health behaviors.

The GrowWELL Garden serves as an interactive outdoor classroom (at the Poe Center) where children learn about gardening, nutrition, soil, composting, plant science, pollination, and more. Our continued goal is to connect our nutrition education lessons with tangible experiences in our garden and kitchen. Learning to grow, prepare, and taste healthy foods reduces several barriers to a healthier lifestyle. To date, the garden features a great number of large garden planters, a composting zone, a pollinator garden, and outdoor classroom seating. Our teaching kitchen, the CookWELL Kitchen, serves as a wonderful companion to the GrowWELL Garden. Students are able to learn how to both grow and cook vegetables harvested from the garden – a true seed to table teaching model. Additionally, we partner with schools and childcare centers in our region to provide garden education and technical support.