Employee Benefits News: Hewlett Packard’s latest benefit is a virtual vegetable garden

A newly-adopted benefit aims to teach employees how to sustainably grow their own produce, while improving their mental health.

Hewlett Packard partnered with StartOrganic, a virtual garden platform, to offer a new wellness program to their workforce. The app teaches employees how to plant and maintain an organic garden through webinars, posts and Q&A sessions on Microsoft Teams. Hewlett Packard executives hope the program will encourage healthy eating and foster wellness in their global workforce.

“Everyone looks forward to starting their gardens, engaging with their families in the process and connecting with other team members in new ways,” said Allison Stark, manager of global wellness for Hewlett Packard Enterprise, in a release. “Employees are able to literally see the fruits of their labor that allows all involved to feel accomplishment and success.”

Eighty-five percent of Americans say their eating habits have changed due to the pandemic, and just 22% reported eating healthier, according to a survey by the International Food Information Council. One-third of Americans say they are snacking more, and 47% say they are eating more sweets.

Read more: Food for thought: Nutrition programs spike employee productivity

Encouraging healthy eating is not only beneficial from a nutritional standpoint, it also reduces an employer’s healthcare spend: for every dollar spent on an employer-sponsored wellness program, businesses saved $3 in healthcare costs per employee, according to a report by the International Foundation of Employee Benefit Plans.

While gardening helps introduce whole fruits and vegetables into our diets, it also helps foster positive mental health. According to Psychology Today, gardening can help people “develop a growth mindset,” and connect with others.

This connection is especially crucial during the pandemic, as 48% of employees reported they were at a higher risk of depression between November and December, according to the Mental Health Index by Total Brain and the National Alliance of Healthcare Purchaser Coalitions. Employees also reported their motivation and focus decreased by 62%.

StartOrganic’s platform helps facilitate connection and healthy habits by allowing employees to video chat with their colleagues and gardening professionals.

“[The program] provides a fresh approach to supporting the mental health needs of employees, especially since we had to consider new ways to engage team members due to the pandemic,” Stark said.

Kayla Webster

Associate Editor, Employee Benefit News

Garden Visit: Paypal in Silicon Valley

Garden Visit: Paypal in Silicon Valley

Michelle Slatalla March 21, 2016

Even in Silicon Valley, software engineers do not live by code alone. PayPal’s headquarters in San Jose is home to an organic vegetable garden with 30 raised beds so employees can grow their own food. (And there’s a waiting list to get a plot.)

Built in 2013 by South Bay-based StartOrganic, the garden started as a small-scale project on a shoestring budget. Three years later, “the garden flourishes every season because we basically make it hard for people to fail out there,” says StartOrganic co-founder Troy Smothermon, who runs monthly hands-on workshops to offer Paypal’s lunch-hour gardeners tips on how to keep their crops alive:

Photography courtesy of StartOrganic.

Above: “We built the garden back when Paypal and eBay shared a campus and we originally met with the leader of eBay’s green team,” says Smothermon. “He was managing a garden that was struggling, with free garden space for employees to use as they wanted. But the ‘free’ space wasn’t working, because it gave employees who weren’t gardeners the idea they could go out and harvest other people’s veggies, or rip out other people’s plants.”

Smothermon and his partner, SmartOrganic co-founder Josh Levine, came up with a new plan. Nowadays employees have to sign up for one of 24 raised beds (the other six beds are maintained as a demonstration garden for educational purposes) and pay a $30 fee twice a year for plants and seeds. “The $30 is a commitment; we wanted employees to feel some ownership,” says Smothermon. “And by the end of the year, they’ve taken between $380 and $480 worth of organic produce out of their garden.”

Above: The waiting list for one of two dozen 4-by-8-foot garden beds “is as long as the number of people in the program,” says Smothermon. “We give priority to people who want to garden in a group so more people can be involved.”

Above: Edible nasturtium.

In addition to running monthly how-to workshops, Smothermon and team are on site once a week to maintain the garden beds. “We do it at lunchtime so employees have a chance to ask questions,” he says. “It’s like having office hours for a professor. They ask us questions that range from ‘what can I plant so I’ll always have something to harvest’ to ‘how much should I be watering’?”

Above:  “There are two big planting seasons, and the next one is coming up really soon,” says Smothermon. “In preparation, this month we’ll do a pretty massive cleanup, and pull everyone’s plants that are finished.  It’s a dirty job and we’re not expecting people in suits and ties to be out there doing it.”

Above: Romaine lettuce.

This month StartOrganic will fix any problems in the automatic irrigation system, compost plants, till, and add soil amendments to the employees’ beds. “We’ll be ready to have planting days starting March 30,” says Smothermon.

Above: Smothermon (R) at work in the garden.

Built of redwood, the boxes are 12 inches tall and are filled with organic soil. An in-ground irrigation system is set to “water crops minimally and follow sustainability practices,” says Smothermon. Employees can fill watering cans to give individual plants more water as needed.

Above: “We give them a seasonal list of plants and seeds they can buy—including tomatoes, peppers, zucchinis, carrots, beets, and radishes,” says Smothermon. “Some plants like tomatoes we buy from local nurseries instead of starting from seed, because some plants do better when they’re in a 4-inch pot and have been growing for six weeks in the care of a nursery.”

Above: Peas grow on metal cages in a garden bed.

“We just go buy trays and trays of veggies from local nurseries to keep in our own greenhouse,” says Smothermon.

Above: A tomato ripens on the vine.

The area is pretty close to dining halls and we do harvest the vegetables in the demonstration beds and give them to the catering company on campus,” says Smothermon. “We’re we’re not able to feed the masses with what we’re producing there, but it really is educational.”

Above: “A corporate garden is a great thing for people who are working 40 or 60 hour work weeks and don’t have the time or energy to garden at home,” says Smothermon.

Above: Calendula at work.

“For the last five generations, we’ve have been robbed slowly of the most important thing people can do, which is to grow your own food and know where it comes from,” says Smothermon. “Gardens like this can fix that, one step at a time.”

StartOrganic is expanding corporate organic vegetable gardening programs in the Bay Area

THURSDAY, MARCH 24, 2016

StartOrganic is expanding corporate organic vegetable gardening programs in the Bay Area

StartOrganic is a vegetable gardening service based in San Jose. Their first major corporate project was at PayPal's San Jose headquarters, offering weekly gardening lessons for employees and a vegetable farm right on the PayPal campus. I love the concept and hope more companies will offer similar programs. How cool would it be to start seeing organic vegetable gardens on the roofs of corporate buildings in San Jose? Check out their full press release and video below.

SAN JOSE, CA
StartOrganic Vegetable Garden Service announced today they are expanding their popular Corporate Organic Vegetable Gardening Programs, after their tremendous success with the Corporate Organic Vegetable Gardening Program at PayPal’s Headquarters in San Jose. Presently in its fourth year, the Program is StartOrganic’s most extensive corporate garden to-date with weekly gardening lessons for PayPal employees covering topics such as pest control, plant selection and spacing, as well as monthly workshops. It features 30 raised organic vegetable garden beds with 24 maintained by PayPal employees, under the guidance of StartOrganic, and 6 beds are used as demonstration gardens and maintained by StartOrganic. Other gardens StartOrganic has designed, consulted, built and maintain include the Saratoga Elementary School, The Forge at Santa Clara University, The Studio by Angi – Salon and Boutique, West Valley Community Services, La Mesa Verde/Sacred Heart, and the YMCA Saratoga.

“The number of benefits a corporate garden can provide is just incredible,” said StartOrganic Co-Founder Josh Levine. “For example, the PayPal Employee Vegetable Gardening Program lets employees grow their own produce on their lunch break or free time for their personal use or to share with co-workers. The gardening skills we teach the employees, they then use in their own home gardens to teach their families and neighbors, thereby improving their neighborhoods. It’s also a fantastic team-building exercise that allows employees to get outside and have an experience completely different than their daily routine,” concluded Levine.

“The PayPal Employee Vegetable Gardening Program has allowed us to showcase the huge health benefits of eating organic vegetables versus grabbing something from a vending machine,” said StartOrganic Co-Founder Troy Smothermon. “Employees are healthier because of their eating habits, but they also get personal satisfaction from growing their own food, not to mention the mental benefits of getting outdoors and away from their cubicle allowing them to positively re-charge. A corporate gardening program is the perfect way for a company to attract and retain happy, healthy and productive employees,” stated Smothermon.

Corporate gardens are an inexpensive way for companies to stimulate employee engagement. As a part of the program, StartOrganic offers company-wide vegetable gardening workshops which benefit all employees. Excess organic produce grown by the employees is used in company cafeterias, providing a truly localized food experience. StartOrganic will work with any company or organization to create a custom corporate garden program with the space available and unique needs of the employees. From consulting, designing, building, maintaining and training – the vegetable garden service facilitates the entire process and operation of the Employee Gardening Program. For more information about StartOrganic’s Corporate Organic Gardening Programs visit http://startorganic.org or call 408-888-1903.

About StartOrganic StartOrganic was founded in 2011 by local Bay Area residents, Josh Levine and Troy Smothermon. The company has developed many school gardens, community gardens and corporate organic gardens. StartOrganic’s goal is to empower and educate people throughout the South Bay Area by helping them to grow their own organic produce and build sustainable local food systems. For more information visit http://startorganic.org or Like them on Facebook.

How does your tech campus garden grow?

Silicon Valley Business Journal, October 2017

There’s an oasis of greenery sprouting out of PayPal’s headquarters in San Jose.

This island in a sea of concrete and glass is a garden created by PayPal employees with the help of StartOrganic, a vegetable garden service that began in 2011 with the mission of teaching as many people as possible how to successfully grow organic food.

StartOrganic first worked to show Silicon Valley residents how to grow organic food in their home gardens, then branched out to the corporate world after taking eBay as a client a few years later. 

It is now also educating employees at LinkedIn, Symantec and Evernote, teaching max-capacity classes while finding ways to create full-time gardens on corporate campuses. StartOrganic bills its services as a benefit for employee wellness, providing a means to reduce stress and improve eating habits.

The eBay garden — now the PayPal garden after the two companies split in 2015 — can be called one of StartOrganic’s early success stories. It started as a small patch and has since grown to 38 raised garden beds with 50-plus employees growing different varieties of tomatoes, squash, herbs and sunflowers. It has become a part of the campus culture.