Learn About the Growing Kindness™ Movement

Why We Started

In a world where genuine connection can feel increasingly rare, Growing Kindness™ began with a simple hope: to help people experience the beauty, healing, and togetherness that bloom when we share what we grow.

What started as one person growing a few extra flowers to give away has blossomed into a global movement of people spreading kindness — one bloom, one bouquet, one small act at a time.

We’re a 501(c)(3) nonprofit built on a simple belief:

when people grow and give flowers freely, connection blooms and communities grow stronger roots.

The effects reach far beyond what we can see. 

*From hospital rooms to nursing homes, from lonely neighbors to grieving friends, sharing flowers has a way of transforming ordinary moments into extraordinary connections.

Growing Kindness™ exists to welcome and encourage anyone who wants to bring more kindness into the world — right where they live.

You don’t need a big garden or special skills. Who you are, and what you have, is already enough to make a difference.

Whether you tend a single pot or rows of backyard blooms, your kindness matters.

All it takes is a bit of dirt, a willing heart, and the courage to share what you grow.
We’re here to help you grow kindness — and to remind you that you’re never doing it alone.

Our History

Fourteen years ago, Growing Kindness Founder Deanna Kitchen found herself in the midst of a difficult season. She had just left her teaching job to stay home with her toddler and newborn. It was exactly where she wanted to be… but the joy of that season was clouded by loneliness.

Isolated from her community and struggling under the weight of postpartum depression, Deanna felt unmoored. Without her role as an educator, she wrestled with how to create meaningful connections and give back.

Social media was just emerging, but despite having hundreds of friends online, she had never felt more disconnected. 

That summer, hope began to take root in her garden. With a baby monitor hooked on her hip, Deanna spent nap times digging her hands into the soil and turning her face to the sun. Behind the swing, she planted a row of sweet peas, and to her surprise, they bloomed abundantly.

Cutting handful after handful of the fragrant blossoms, Deanna realized she was holding the key to reconnecting: flowers.

She tucked the blooms into baby jars, loaded them into a shoebox, and, with a rolly-polly baby on her hip and a toddler clutching her purse, walked into a local care home. She left with an empty box and a bursting heart.

Flowers had given her the courage to reach out, and each visit filled her life with joy and meaningful connection.

Every year, Deanna planted more flowers. Her garden grew into a flower farm, her family grew to include three little boys, and her acts of kindness grew too—sharing flowers with care home residents, delivery drivers, postal clerks, and neighbors. One day, a care home resident expressed his wish that more people like him, isolated in care facilities, could experience the joy of receiving flowers and a visitor. Deanna began to dream of sharing the joy she’d found in growing and giving flowers more broadly.

The key came one spring day as she divided dahlia tubers. With hundreds of extra tubers, Deanna and her family opened their farm and invited others to pick up free tubers to help them grow and give flowers as acts of kindness. The Growing Kindness Movement was born.

Our first year, hundreds of dahlias were shared across Washington state.

*Today, Growing Kindness has reached communities on every continent (except Antarctica!) 

Growing Kindness gardeners and ambassadors have shared over 14,800 bouquets, distributed 9,500 dahlia tubers, and provided countless moments of connection and joy through flowers.