SAN JOSE, Calif., Jan. 26, 2026 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) — StartOrganic, the leading provider of corporate wellness through regenerative gardening, food education, and community-based sustainability, announced today a year-end recap of its most impactful initiatives and milestones achieved throughout 2025. The organization expanded its national footprint, deepened corporate partnerships, launched new educational programming, and supported schools and volunteers across multiple regions.
“What stood out most this year was the enthusiasm and engagement from people at every level—employees, students, volunteers, and partners,” said Troy Smothermon, Co-Founder of StartOrganic. “Whether it was a rooftop garden in Manhattan or a school beautification project, the shared goal was the same: reconnecting people with where food comes from and how growing together builds stronger communities.”
Corporate Partner Expansions
Throughout 2025, StartOrganic significantly expanded its work with leading corporate partners:
- At Corcept Therapeutics, StartOrganic supported the expansion of on-site gardens from eight to twenty garden boxes, delivering both in-person classes and a year-long virtual education series that reached participants nationwide.
- At long-time partner PayPal, StartOrganic introduced new quarterly workshops open to the entire campus community, covering topics such as potato planting, seed starting, young plant care, pest identification, and pruning. Participants received hands-on materials including seed kits, soils, gardening gloves, and co-branded farmers market bags. In addition, StartOrganic helped steward long-standing garden success stories, including PayPal’s famous purple potato crop, which has continued to grow without replanting for more than a decade.
- StartOrganic introduced a LinkedIn Summer In-Day Gardening Series, a six-session program designed to guide participants through the summer growing season.
Geographic Expansion
- StartOrganic launched its first New York City garden, a rooftop patio installation in Manhattan for PubMatic, while also establishing an additional garden at PubMatic’s Redwood City location.
School Partnerships
Beyond corporate campuses, StartOrganic remained deeply engaged in community and school partnerships:
- The organization consulted with George Hall Elementary School, supporting a 200-volunteer beautification day, and volunteered at Santa Barbara Charter Elementary School, contributing to the growth and success of its school garden program.
Custom Seedlings and Crop Expansions
Across winter and summer seasons, StartOrganic cultivated a wide variety of crops, including leafy greens, brassicas, tomatoes, peppers, cucumbers, squash, herbs, melons, eggplant, and sunflowers—demonstrating the organization’s commitment to biodiversity, seasonal growing, and hands-on food education.
The organization also collaborated with Clearwater Color Nursery in Los Osos Valley to grow custom seedlings tailored to StartOrganic’s seasonal planting needs, enabling a diverse range of vegetables, herbs, and flowers to be planted throughout the year.
“It was exciting to expand both our physical gardens and our educational reach,” said Josh Levine, Co-Founder of StartOrganic. “We deepened long-standing partnerships in California and established new opportunities beyond, while working with each organization to change people’s lives for the better through the tremendous mental and physical benefits growing your own food provides.”
Looking ahead to 2026, StartOrganic plans to continue expanding its corporate, educational, and community programs while advancing its mission to make regenerative gardening accessible, engaging, and impactful nationwide.
Visit https://www.startorganic.org/ to learn more or watch this video: https://youtu.be/tzAwl-omucA
About StartOrganic
Founded in 2011 by Bay Area residents Josh Levine and Troy Smothermon, StartOrganic is the leading provider worldwide of online and on-campus corporate wellness through organic vegetable gardening programs. It helps companies teach their employees about growing their own organic food. Its customer list includes Corcept Therapeutics, PubMatic, Wake County NC, EOG Resources, DTE, Hewlett Packard Enterprise, Whole Foods, Bed Bath & Beyond, Boardriders, Sage Therapeutics, EOG Resources, Inc., Edgewell Personal Care, Hixny, Norton Lifelock, IBM, Patagonia, Zuora, David Polk, NetApp, Inc., Stanford University, Intuit, LinkedIn, and PayPal. StartOrganic also works with universities and many school gardens, agrihoods, community gardens and organic gardens for regional businesses. Its mission is to empower and educate people nationwide and worldwide by helping them grow their own organic produce and build sustainable local food systems. The company believes people should “know where your food comes from”. Visit http://startorganic.org to learn more.
Media Contact
Ria Romano, Partner
RPR Public Relations, Inc.
Tel. 786-290-6413
A photo accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/3e79a394-e265-4ac4-93c1-755b1249ca87
A video accompanying this announcement is available at https://www.globenewswire.com/NewsRoom/AttachmentNg/70861928-8180-4c3e-b24a-793b343a5289