Cultivating hope, joy, and transformation inside prisons.
Seed & Bloom facilitates therapeutic horticulture and culinary arts classes for students at the Penitentiary of New Mexico (PNM). With groups at both the minimum- and maximum-security facilities and an amazing team of facilitators and volunteers, they grow fresh vegetables and flowers outdoors in newly restored greenhouses and indoors in a controlled hydroponic environment.
Each week, students use what they’ve harvested to develop healthy recipes. They create beautiful, delicious dishes while experiencing the full cycle from seed to table and sharing their work with the community and beyond.
The mission of Seed & Bloom is to use the healing power of horticultural therapy along with agricultural and culinary education to uplift and empower incarcerated individuals at any stage of their journey.
A Brief History
Seed & Bloom was founded in 2024 by Gunjan Koul. Gunjan offered programming at the Penitentiary of New Mexico in 2023, which focused on planting native pollinator species. She envisioned a vocational training program that supports meaningful change through continuity and joy. Gunjan brings nine years of experience working as an educator in New York City jails.
In their first year, Seed & Bloom restored four greenhouses, started a small farm, added eight raised beds at a second facility, and shared more than 100 workshops filled with laughter, learning, and the earthy magic of soil and spices. Their students at the Penitentiary of New Mexico have written zines, harvested carrots, and grown food hydroponically in indoor gardens—all with care, pride, and a deep sense of purpose.
Today they work with four different student groups inside the penitentiary. In their first full growing season, the Seed & Bloom farm produced more than 450 pounds of food. Their goal is to grow 1200 pounds in season 2. They intend to expand production with a fifth greenhouse.
Seed & Bloom’s circle of community partners and supporters has expanded as well. It includes families and neighbors who understand how incarceration affects not only individuals, but entire communities. Seed and Bloom works with the New Mexico Farmers Marketing Association to provide students with Food Safety Training. They also recently worked with the New Mexico Economic Development Department to create a documentary highlighting their partnership with the Santa Fe Farmers Market Institute.
In spring 2026, they began developing a reentry program that will support students as they carry these relationships and experiences beyond the prison walls.
Programming
Seed & Bloom offers three main program areas: Nature-Based Activities, the Seed & Bloom Farm, and Culinary Workshops.
Nature-Based Activities
Rooted in therapeutic horticulture, these activities include:
- Tending to indoor plants and hydroponics towers, where they grow flowers and vegetables inside the prison
- Sitting under the tree in the courtyard with students
- Reading poems
- Expressing themselves with the help of hand puppets
- Zine making
- Creating bottle gardens from upcycled water bottles
Seed & Bloom Farm
Seed & Bloom’s food is sold through the Santa Fe Farmers Market Institute’s Tianguis Móvil truck, which visits communities across the city with the goal of expanding access to fresh and healthy foods.
Students on the farm crew receive Food Safety Training, hands-on skills in horticulture and farming, and a chance to make pickles from freshly harvested veggies in the greenhouse classroom.
Culinary Workshops
Seed & Bloom students prepare meals, look at grocery store prices in real time, and reflect on questions at the dinner table. These often center on food memories and the sensory experiences the kitchen offers.
Workshops involve hours of teamwork and problem solving, creativity, beauty, and cooking. They are opportunities for students to turn on a stove for the first time (or for the first time in over a decade), crack their first egg, identify ginger root for the first time, or have their first taste of horchata.
The facilitator team refers to this space as the joy lab!
Learn More & Follow Their Work:
- Seed & Bloom website
- Follow on Instagram
