Microgreens in youth work

A tray of seeds becomes a shared responsibility, a daily lesson in observation and a harvest the whole group cooks and eats together, all inside ten days and on any youth centre budget.

Explore the toolkits

Who this is for

You are a youth worker looking for a hands-on non-formal education activity that actually holds attention: a living project with real responsibility, change you can see every day, and green transition, healthy living and employability themes carried without a classroom feel. Or you run a youth organisation shaping an Erasmus+ youth project, an exchange or a capacity-building partnership around a concrete, replicable method. Either way, this page shows you the method in full — the toolkits, the cycle and the results.

Our track record, honestly stated in two layers: the microgreens methodology was born inside European Solidarity Corps project 2024-1-EL02-ESC51-VTJ-000225260 and has been running since 2025. Behind it stands the organisation EVEC Athens (evec.org.gr), accredited for Erasmus+ Youth (2023-1-EL02-KA150-YOU-000188397) and working in European projects since 2017, with 20+ Erasmus+ and ESC projects delivered. The workshops in Athens are facilitated by our team together with international ESC volunteers, and this portal, live since August 2025, is where everything they help build stays public and free.

What the method gives your group

An activity backbone

Our 10-Day Growing Guide, from seed to harvest, gives any session plan a living centre: young people water, measure, record and harvest something real. Published as an open draft for feedback.

A toolkit for ages 15 to 19

Teams build a small hydroponic system with sensors and collect their own data, connecting biology, sustainability and technology in one project. Also published as an open draft.

A toolkit for ages 18 to 30

A ten-day bootcamp joining growing with business planning, finance, marketing and pitching, built for the employability strand of a youth project. Also an open draft.

Workshop practice

Our international volunteers run workshops in Athens on growing microgreens in the city, harvesting at home and cooking them, and we share that facilitation experience with partners.

Real infrastructure

We work from a physical growing space in Athens, the same space we offer free to young entrepreneurs through our cooperative.

Dissemination that lasts

This portal carries more than 110 free articles and keeps project results visible and usable after funding ends, which is what sustainability of results looks like in practice.

An illustrative programme idea, not a fixed plan: the full growing cycle fits inside a single youth exchange. In a KA152 activity of 5 to 21 days, sow the trays on day two, rotate watering and measurement duties through the middle days, then harvest and cook together near the end, so the exchange closes with a meal the group grew itself.

The cycle also leaves a paper trail of learning: germination logs, growth measurements, harvest notes and, in the 18-to-30 track, a costed mini business plan. These are documentable learning outcomes participants can reflect on in their Youthpass certificates, particularly under the entrepreneurship and the personal, social and learning-to-learn key competences. We certify nothing ourselves; the method simply gives young people something specific to write about.

The methodology in practice

Participants assembling a growing rack with LED lights
Growing diaries and microgreens trays during a youth workshop
Youth exchange group with their microgreens trays and certificates
Photographs from our youth exchanges and workshops in Athens.

Results you can use

Two tiers, honestly labelled. The cookbook below, the Academy courses and the rest of this portal are live and in daily use; the two toolkits are open drafts your consortium can help finish. Piloting a draft with your own young people, then feeding back what worked, is a legitimate, fundable project activity — and finishing a toolkit is a ready-made work package.

High School Youth toolkit (15–19)

A team-based journey where young people build a hydroponic system, run it with sensors and analyse the data they collect. Open draft, feedback welcome. Read the draft

Young Entrepreneurs toolkit (18–30)

Ten days that pair growing skills with business planning, finance, marketing and a final pitch. Open draft, feedback welcome. Read the draft

The cookbook

Live and in use today: easy, mostly vegan-friendly recipes developed and tested by our team and volunteers, made for the group cooking session that closes a growing cycle. Open the cookbook

See everything we have built →

Learn with us

Three free, self-paced courses are live and complete as v1 open educational resources — take them yourself or use them with your group. For youth workers, the natural starting point is the free educators course, which walks a facilitator through running the growing cycle with a group and is ready to use in session planning today. This list updates as new courses are published.

All courses live in the EVEC Microgreens Academy.

From the knowledge base

Fresh reading for youth workers, drawn automatically from our latest articles.

Browse the full library of guides, recipes and research on our blog.

Want to build a project around this?

This portal is where the method lives; Erasmus+ youth partnerships and exchanges are arranged with EVEC Athens at evec.org.gr. Read the toolkit drafts to see which age group and themes fit your concept, decide the role you would like EVEC to play — method partner, host for activities in Athens, content development, or dissemination through this portal — and bring the idea to EVEC to shape learning outcomes, activities and follow-up together.

An example of the role EVEC Athens could take

An illustrative example, not a fixed offer — the real shape depends on your project. In a youth partnership, EVEC Athens, the organisation behind the methodology, could act as method partner and lead the finalisation of one toolkit:

  • EVEC Athens provides the relevant toolkit draft — say, the Young Entrepreneurs bootcamp for ages 18 to 30 — together with a short method briefing, so every partner’s facilitators start from the same material.
  • Partner organisations pilot the toolkit with their own young people, in their own settings, and record what worked, what confused and what they changed.
  • EVEC integrates that feedback, finalises the toolkit and publishes the open-licensed final version on this portal, where it stays free and visible after the funding ends.

Two deliverables come out of that role: the finalised open educational resource (v1.0) and a pilot report documenting how the method performed across partner countries.

Your theme is not named on this page? Bullying prevention, integration, LGBTQ+ inclusion, mental health, NEET employability — every youth topic has a microgreens hook. Find yours, then take the idea to EVEC.

The methodology: this portal is the home of the microgreens methodology — one hands-on way of learning that works for any vocation and any age, running since 2025.

The organisation behind it: EVEC Athens (European Voluntary and Educational Center), an accredited Greek NGO working in European projects since 2017 · OID E10172681 · PIC 909448430 · Erasmus+ Youth accreditation 2023-1-EL02-KA150-YOU-000188397 · ESC Quality Label 2023-1-EL02-ESC50-QLA-000195138 — both valid until 2027. Verify in the EU organisation registry (search for OID E10172681), see the track record, or visit the organisation at evec.org.gr.

Ready to partner on a project?

The methodology lives here on the portal; Erasmus+ youth partnerships are arranged with EVEC Athens. Start at evec.org.gr and the team will take it from there.

Partner with EVEC →

Co-funded by the European Union.
This portal presents the microgreens methodology; the organisation behind it is EVEC Athens — the European Voluntary and Educational Center (evec.org.gr). Views and opinions expressed are those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or the European Commission. Neither the European Union nor the granting authority can be held responsible for them.