The East McKinney Learning Garden, a collaborative initiative between the McKinney Parks Foundation and the city of McKinney, is moving toward completion.

Work on the project began in August and has continued to progress while fundraising efforts for the project surpassed the initial goal. Over 150 people, including representatives of the project and community members, celebrated the project milestone at a Dec. 7 event.

The details

The East McKinney Learning Garden is focused on teaching community members how to create and maintain food-producing gardens in their own backyards, said project representative Bruce Mead, who also serves as a McKinney Parks Foundation board member. The project is intended to be an effort to help address food insecurity in the McKinney area.

The learning garden is located at the northwest corner of the Tupps Brewery site in east McKinney, and features about 30 raised garden beds in a variety of styles as well as potting benches and a harvest wash area.


The space will also serve as an outdoor classroom with a teaching area, and will host a variety of classes and learning opportunities. Food produced at the garden will be distributed to Community Garden Kitchen, La Tiendita, Hugs Café and East McKinney Farmers Market, according to the McKinney Parks Foundation website.

Diving in deeper

A fundraising effort to support the garden looked to raise $250,000 to support the garden’s operations for three years, Mead said.

At the time of the ribbon-cutting, the initiative had raised $325,000 through donations and grants, including a $100,000 contribution from the Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation and a $60,000 contribution from the SRS Raise the Roof Foundation.


Tupps Brewery owner Keith Lewis also announced the launch of the Farmhouse Ale Learning Garden beer at the event. Proceeds from the sale of the beer, which features flavors of lemon, basil and fresh black pepper, at Tupps Brewery will support the garden. The beer is available on draft and canned at the brewery, according to a social media post from the business.

What they’re saying
  • “We are excited about the opportunity, that it will serve the residents of this community and the nonprofit organizations. I encourage everyone to take the opportunity to come and learn, it is a learning garden,” said Angela Richardson-Woods, chair of the McKinney Community Development Corporation board, at the event.
  • “Walking through something that benefits the community, educates the community, feeds the community. That's a special thing,” McKinney Mayor George Fuller said at the event.
  • “The key to the garden's success is engagement with the McKinney legacy neighborhoods with the hope of creating backyard and community gardens throughout East McKinney,” Mead said in an email.
Looking ahead

Remaining work on the garden will be completed by volunteers, Mead said, and includes construction of some garden beds and setting the border of the garden.

The garden beds will be set and filled prior to the first planting, which will be conducted at a grand opening event in the spring, Mead said. Events, classes and other programming at the garden will begin following the grand opening event.


Mead said he looks forward to collaborating with McKinney ISD and Collin College in initiatives that will involve students working on the garden.