Debra Ann Harkins

Oh! We're little gardeners Debra Ann Harkins

A dual-language picture book addresses food insecurity and hands-on solutions for children.


Magda and Anna teach young children about gardening and eating healthy, and they all work together to plant healthy foods and read books about healthy eating. The children feel proud eating the food that they've grown themselves.


But when the pandemic, COVID-19, set in, Magda and Anna noticed that with families staying at home and children not in school, many were without healthy food. They delivered care boxes with food and books but soon realized that this would not be enough to sustain them. Instead of providing family's food, the women had an idea to provide plants sown from cuttings that the families could grow on their own. With Magda and Anna creating gardening videos, the children learned more about planting their own gardens using scraps and making healthy and delicious recipes from what they've grown.

For twenty-three years, author Mary M. Williams was the primary coordinator for thousands of children each year within the Boston Public School system who experienced homelessness. She now leads CEEDS4Change, a program supporting homeless children and their families in the Boston area. The creation of Oh! We're Little Gardeners, a dual language book in both English and French Creole, arose from a gardening project addressing food insecurity, exacerbated by the pandemic, to help Haitian students in the Boston area.
All proceeds go to CEEDS4Change.org, a nonprofit whose mission is to create self-sustaining collaborations with schools and businesses that encourage organic and non-GMO gardening, nutritious cooking and healthy eating to reduce food insecurities in underserved communities.