Bethesda Green Invests in Innovative Montgomery County Organic Flower Farm

Grateful Gardeners, LLC. Receives Financial Award

Bethesda, MD — Bethesda Green announced today that it has awarded $10,000 to Grateful Gardeners, LLC, a member of the Spring 2020 Cohort of the Innovation Lab Accelerator. Bethesda Green’s executive director, Adam M. Roberts, said of this important financial award, “Bethesda Green works to create a sustainable urban ecosystem in Bethesda specifically, and throughout Montgomery County more broadly, proving that environmental protection and sustainability are completely compatible with product, business, and economic development. Grateful Gardeners is a worthy local business and Bethesda Green is proud to invest in them.”

Founded by Sarah Daken and Thomas Precht in 2018, Grateful Gardeners is a local, sustainable, and organic cut flower farm in the heart of the Montgomery County Agricultural Reserve with a mission to produce year-round organic flowers and foliage to retail, wholesale, and floral design customers in the greater DC metropolitan region. Through innovation, collaborative relationship building, and education of the community, this developing flower farm intends to lead the green transformation of the cut flower industry.

We started our new business in 2018 and as novice entrepreneurs and flower farmers, we had little knowledge of how to actually grow flowers and even less about how to properly run a green business. The Bethesda Green Innovation Lab provided the rocket fuel that our business needed to become profitable, innovative, and impactful. We can’t thank them enough for supporting us, both functionally and financially. The financial award they are generously providing us will push our flower farm into the next level and position us for dramatic success in 2021!

Thomas Precht, Vice President and Co-Founder

Patty Simonton, the director of Bethesda Green’s Be Green Business program, works closely with all Innovation Lab entrepreneurs. She added: “Tom and Sarah’s creativity, persistence, and commitment to their dream enabled them to reflect on the rapidly changing landscape and quickly respond to the myriad economic, social, and healthcare crises our community has faced this year. They clearly love what they do, and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for them.”

Since the Bethesda Green Accelerator launched in January 2018, the program has awarded $95,000 to participating member companies. Recipients of Bethesda Green’s financial award become members of the Innovation Lab’s Residency program, where they receive on-going, hands-on support for up to four years.

EDITOR’S NOTES

About Bethesda Green. Bethesda Green works to address environmental challenges by creating a sustainable, green community built collaboratively through citizen engagement, environmental education, government partnership, and innovative business development. The Innovation Lab, formerly known as the Be Green Hub, is the leading entrepreneurship program in the Mid-Atlantic region that identifies and attracts leaders who are building for-profit business models around innovative and sustainable solutions to tackle environmental and social challenges. With a comprehensive collection of programs, the Innovation Lab’s sustainability-focused entrepreneurial ecosystem is built around Bethesda Green’s successful accelerator program and offers participating entrepreneurs the skills and resources they need to succeed, no matter where in the business lifecycle they are. Areas of focus include the Environment (Clean Energy / Water / Climate / Natural Resources / Zero-Waste / Circular Economy / Sustainable Fashion), and Sustainable Food Systems (Agriculture / AgTech / Food Production / Packaging / Manufacturing / Distribution / Retail). Founders who are interested in learning more about our program are invited to contact the Innovation Lab team.

Media Contact:
Patty Simonton, Director, Be Green Business
patty@bethesdagreen.org
202.425.6576