At the start of World War I, the thriving network of school gardens served as a means to help with the war effort. The National War Garden Commission created the United States School Garden Army in 1918, which enlisted school children to do their part to alleviate food shortages and preserve resources for the front lines. Enlistees were given an insignia, and schools were organized into regiments with a Captain, First Lieutenant and Second Lieutenant. The motto for the program was "A garden for every child, every child in a garden." President Woodrow Wilson allotted $200,000 from the National Security Defense Fund to assist the school garden endeavors. In a letter in the first of the manuals, he said, "The movement to establish gardens, therefore, and to have the children work in them is just as real and patriotic an effort as the building of ships or the firing of a cannon."

Learn more about the School Garden Army during World War I