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The Grow This Throwdown


In conjunction with its 2024 Grow This seed giveaway, the West Virginia University Extension Family Nutrition Program is launching the “Grow This Throwdown,” a statewide competition that aims to get West Virginians to move more, grow their own food and crush hunger in our state. 

Participants complete a series of challenges to earn points for their counties (see the leaderboard below). At the end of the growing season, the counties with the most points will win thousands of dollars in grant funding to complete improvement projects in their communities.

The grand prize winner will receive $10,000 in grant funding. The second prize winner will receive $7,500. Third prize is $5,000 and is sponsored by the West Virginia Nursery & Landscape Association. 

The grant money will be given to community organizations to complete improvement projects in the winning counties. Grow This will work with participants in the winning county, as well as their local WVU Extension office, to identify the projects and organizations that will receive funding. 

The competition will end Oct. 31 with winners announced in early November.

Active Challenges



Seed Library Challenge


We're challenging each county to start their own seed library and stock it full of seeds! This is a great opportunity to bring your community together on a project that will benefit all your local gardeners, and perhaps inspire individuals to start growing their own food. 

We'll be awarding 1,000 Grow This Throwdown points to each county who creates a seed library, and 10 points per packet of seeds that is donated to it. 

Your library must meet the following requirements to earn the points:
  • Must be located in an accessible public space with regular hours (i.e. local library, town hall, food pantry, grocery store). Be sure to get permission from the manager or owner of the building before starting your seed library.
  • There must be signage letting people know about the seed library and how it works. 
  • The seed library must begin with a minimum of 25 seed packets. If you would like to donate seeds you have saved from your own garden, click here to download a printable packet you can use so they are packaged perfectly for donation.
Once you have created your seed library, send an email to ext-fnp@mail.WVU.edu with a photo of the seed library, the county, location of seed library, hours and a contact person (include a phone number and email address). You must submit this information for your county to earn points! 

We'll be accepting seed library submissions and awarding points through September 30th. At that time, we will also choose the most aesthetically pleasing seed library and award that county an additional 250 points! 

Not sure how a seed library works? Watch the video below to see how the Bridgeport Public Library runs theirs!




Throwdown Leaderboard

How does your county stack up in the points race? Find out below.