The National Initiative for Consumer Horticulture (NICH, www.consumerhort.org) is an organization of government, academic and industry horticulture professional who are intent on raising the awareness of consumer horticulture importance to the US economy and in the health and well-being of Americans.The Government/Academic council of NICH is populated by the Consumer Horticulture Southern Coordinating Committee (SCC85). A significant outcome of this group in 2020 was the development of sic extension publications on the society benefits of consumer horticulture (https://consumerhort.org/benefits-of-consumer-horticulture/) with participation from seven southeastern land grant universities, as well as faculty from the University of Hawaii and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln. I contributed as a co-author on the Consumer Horticulture Benefits for Businesses, Workplaces, and Employees which was published as UK HO-126 (http://www2.ca.uky.edu/agcomm/pubs/HO/HO126/HO126.pdf).