Author: Tannya Pico and The Urban Hub Team @ Save the Children

In the hills and valleys of Quito, Ecuador, a quiet green revolution has been unfolding for over two decades. The Metropolitan District of Quito’s Participatory Urban Agriculture Project, also known as AGRUPAR, has significantly improved food security, nutrition, and inclusion for thousands of vulnerable children and families across the city.

Urban Growth and Inequality in Quito

With a population exceeding 2.5 million, the Metropolitan District of Quito has experienced rapid urban growth. Like many Latin American cities, Quito expanded dramatically during the 1980s and 1990s. Its population ballooned from 800,000 in 1980 to 1.4 million by 2000, driven by internal migration, regional crises, and rural-to-urban migration in search of jobs and improved living conditions.

However, the city’s rapid expansion also deepened urban inequality. Many newcomers settled in informal areas, on hillsides, in peri-urban zones, and in underserved inner-city neighbourhoods. These areas often lacked basic infrastructure and services vital to children’s health, education, and well-being.

By the late 1990s, poverty affected nearly half the population in Quito, with child malnutrition rates averaging 30%, and spiking to 47% in the poorest neighbourhoods. It was against this backdrop that the AGRUPAR program was born in 2002, as a response to rising poverty, food insecurity, and environmental degradation.

What is AGRUPAR?

AGRUPAR (Participatory Urban Agriculture Project) is a city-led initiative that works with local communities, schools, and civil society to grow organic food sustainably within the urban and rural parishes of Quito. The project promotes participatory farming through thousands of urban gardens in the form of family gardens, school plots, institutional farms, and community orchards, as well as small-scale livestock initiatives.

The project supports 4,400 urban gardens producing around 1.35 million kilograms of food per year. Roughly 57% of this is consumed directly by the growers and their families, while the rest is sold by families through short supply chains and local markets to supplement household incomes.

Impacts on Families, Migrants, and Children

AGRUPAR has had wide-ranging impacts on food security, child nutrition, and social inclusion in Quito. These include:

• Better access to healthy, affordable food for low-income families, including migrants, retirees, and single-parent households.
• Improved dietary diversity and healthy eating habits among participating children and families.
• Educational opportunities for children to learn about nutrition, food systems, and environmental care.
• Economic and social integration for migrant families, who gain income and community connections through urban farming.
• Environmental benefits, including reduced food miles, composting, and creation of green spaces in dense urban areas.
• A scalable model that has inspired similar programs in other cities across Ecuador and beyond.

Even after 20 years and several changes in political leadership, AGRUPAR remains a robust and highly regarded urban program. So, what’s the secret to its success? And how are time- and resource-strapped caregivers and children able to participate meaningfully?

We spoke to Tannya Pico, a researcher who studied AGRUPAR as part of her dissertation, to better understand how the program engages low-income and migrant communities, especially children and caregivers.

Engaging Children in Growing Food

AGRUPAR has made a strong push to involve children, especially through school gardens and educational programming. According to Tannya, teachers who are passionate about nature-based education often lead the charge, bringing the AGRUPAR model into classrooms and schoolyards.

The program offers training, seeds, infrastructure, and guidance to participating schools. AGRUPAR staff support teachers in integrating urban agriculture into lesson plans, and help them maintain gardens over time. Currently, schools gardens make up about 6% of all urban gardens and they are thriving in several schools in low-income neighbourhoods of Quito such as Llano Chico, Toctiuco and Solanda.

Children also learn about composting and waste reduction. In Solanda, two kindergarten teachers established a garden and a composting station, complete with earthworms. When the COVID-19 pandemic closed schools for 18 months, the teachers continued to maintain the garden and distributed food to students’ families.

“The children learn that plants grow from seeds, how to care for the soil, and how worm compost helps nourish the plants,” says teacher Fabiola Poveda. “They experience textures, colours, and the joy of growing something themselves. We hope this fosters a love of nature.”

Another example is the Dream Refuge Centre in Llano Chico, which serves hundreds of children each day. Many stay at the centre while their parents work. For over a decade, the children have maintained a large garden where they prepare soil, create seedbeds, transplant seedlings, and water crops daily.

“We all eat what they harvest during recess. We prepare salads, and there’s usually enough left over for the kids to take home,” says Sonia Suarez, the centre’s coordinator.

For caregivers, especially women, these gardens provide more than just food. They offer safe, supportive spaces to spend time outdoors, work side by side with neighbors, and engage in shared responsibilities. The gardens strengthen community bonds while supporting both physical and mental well-being.

What Makes AGRUPAR Sustainable?

Many well-intentioned social programs fail to survive political and financial shifts. Yet AGRUPAR has stood the test of time. Its sustainability is driven by four key factors:

1. Low-Cost and High Impact

With a relatively small annual budget, around US$283,000 in 2018, plus about US$27,000 from self-generated income, AGRUPAR delivers significant returns. About 90% of the budget goes toward staffing, including agricultural engineers, trainers, and community workers who provide ongoing technical support. The rest supports supplies, logistics, and advocacy.

2. Strong Partnerships

Since its launch, AGRUPAR has partnered with a range of local, national, and international organizations, enhancing its reach and resilience. These include:

• UN Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO)
• RUAF Foundation and global alliances like the Milan Urban Food Pact
• 100 Resilient Cities, C40 Cities, and ICLEI
• Local universities, private sector actors, farmers’ networks, and social movements

3. Institutional Integration

AGRUPAR is housed within ConQuito, the city’s Agency for Economic Promotion. This gives it a permanent budget and formal status within the public administration. Being embedded in ConQuito has also enabled close collaboration with departments related to health, education, entrepreneurship, and environment. Thus helping to embed urban agriculture in wider city policies and resilience plans.

4. Community Ownership

From the beginning, AGRUPAR has tapped into existing urban farming traditions, especially among indigenous and migrant populations. It’s a bottom-up initiative that responds to local demand. Participants pay a small fee ($1–$2) for training, cover part or all of infrastructure costs, and bear 100% of organic certification costs, ensuring buy-in and accountability. The project recognizes local knowledge, builds capacity, and offers targeted technical support, reinforcing a sense of ownership and pride.

Challenges Ahead

Despite its success, AGRUPAR faces significant threats from political instability. Shifting priorities and leadership changes can lead to budget cuts, delays, and reduced institutional support. Bureaucratic hurdles and corruption also remain challenges for urban farmers seeking to scale their efforts or secure land and water access.

Still, the project’s resilience lies in its deep community roots and proven impact, making it a model for other cities.

Why AGRUPAR Matters

Quito’s experience shows that urban agriculture isn’t just about food. It’s about equity, inclusion, education, and community resilience. AGRUPAR teaches children to grow food, understand ecosystems, and care for the environment. It helps families stretch their incomes, strengthens social ties, and integrates marginalized communities into the fabric of city life.

By investing in similar programs, cities around the world can transform unused spaces into productive, inclusive, and nurturing environments, especially for their youngest and most vulnerable residents.

About the Author

Tannya Pico is an Architect, researcher, and educator with 25 years of experience. She is affiliated as a researcher at the Institute of Urban Excellence in the Netherlands and as a researcher and lecturer at Pontifical Catholic University of Ecuador. Her main research focus is on Nature-based Solutions in urban environments.

Many thanks to Cecilia Vaca Jones for reviewing earlier versions for this blog and her insightful comments and suggestions.

The Ideas for Action Series showcases ideas for action, innovation, programmes, policies and practices that make public spaces child-friendly. Read more of our blogs here. 

This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License. When re-sharing this content, please ensure accreditation by adding the following sentence: ‘This blog was first published by the Global Alliance – Cities4Children (www.cities4children.org/blog)’