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People’s Gardens in 17 USDA Urban Hubs

City/State

Garden Partner

Garden Overview

Albuquerque, NM

Parks and Recreation Department and Aviation Department, City of Albuquerque

The Rey and Ilsa Garduno Acro-Ecology Center is a one-acre community garden supported by neighborhood residents on city-owned land that has been operating for about 10 years. This food-producing garden supports education and mentoring programs for young people.

Atlanta, GA

Groundwork Atlanta

The Urban Food Forest at Brown’s Mill is Atlanta's first community food forest. It provides a wide variety of food producing trees, shrubs, herbs, groundcovers, mushrooms and more. The People's Garden supports irrigation and water conservation practices and provides technical assistance and training to Urban Food Forest partners.

Chicago, IL

 

Urban Transformation Network

Metro Farm grows fruits and vegetables in raised beds and seasonal high tunnels and hosts workshops for local residents about how to grow and cook healthy meals. The farm includes an aquaculture program that produces tilapia for local restaurants and grows hydroponic vegetables that are distributed to local families. UTN also teaches youth the value of growing food, helping them develop skills and interests that will help them with future careers.

Cleveland, OH

Concerned Citizens Community Council (CCCC)

CCCC empowers members of the local community to make the Mt. Pleasant neighborhood a safe place to reside, work, and raise a family while feeding the hungry and needy. The People’s Garden is a food producing farm that incorporates sustainable practices with educational training programs.

Dallas, TX

Texas Discovery Gardens

Grow Well and Discover is a food and pollinator garden classroom and greenspace. The People’s Garden includes both a food garden open to the public and an edible landscape demonstration.

Dallas, TX

Grow North Texas

 

Seeds of Faith Collective

The Garth Chapel A.M.E. People’s Garden is creating a community food oasis to supplement the church's food ministry with fresh garden produce. Through the People’s Garden, the church offers educational opportunities on food production, food preparation, and environmental stewardship. The garden provides produce to the Friday evening meal program of the church and nutrition education to the local community.

Detroit, MI

Keep Growing Detroit

The Keep Growing Detroit Farm’s 1.38-acre growing space hosts education, volunteer, recreation, and community events each week throughout the growing season. The Farm actively serves as a regional model for farm conservation practices, education and outreach, and assistance in navigating the City of Detroit’s permitting processes.

Grand Rapids, MI

New City Neighbors

New City Neighbors farm provides fruit and vegetables for emergency food providers in multiple areas of Grand Rapids. The garden engages local youth through employment, gardening, and cooking classes. The site includes native plant gardens throughout the property that attracts pollinators and native beneficial insects, sustainable practices, accessible raised beds, and opportunities for education and outreach.

Los Angeles, CA

NHS Center For Sustainable Communities

The People’s Garden in Los Angeles provides fresh produce to the community, a healing garden for impacted communities of color, and resources for low-income seniors, families, and youth. The garden is a space for healthy food workshops, garden caretaking and promotes local green jobs. They also implement conservation practices that improve soil fertility, improve soil moisture retention, and solar lighting.

Minneapolis, MN

Project Sweetie Pie

Project Sweetie Pie supports multiple community gardens in populated, underserved urban areas of the Twin Cities. The gardens support local food production, multigenerational and multiracial community involvement, food supply for local free meals program, youth engagement and education, economic revitalization.

New Orleans, LA

Sankofa Community Development

The Sankofa community garden is located in the lower 9th ward of New Orleans designated a USDA food desert. Sankofa is actively involved in their community, constantly searching for ways to improve life and health for residents. There educational and outreach work include contributing to their local food bank, mobile market, and participation in the SNAP match program.

New York, NY

Mary Mitchell Family and Youth Center (Garden of Happiness)

The Garden of Happiness is more than a natural refuge; it is a focus of community activity and cultural exchange. Members of the garden have organized voter registration drives, census outreach programs, workshops on agriculture and soil testing, as well as food drives for the homeless. The garden participates in outreach projects with the New York Botanical Garden’s Bronx Green-Up program and the Trust for Public Land’s Neighborhood Open-Space Management program. The garden has also allocated one planting bed for the children of the neighborhood with a children’s mural representing their efforts. The garden practices sustainability through rainwater harvesting, solar energy, and wildlife habitat.

New York, NY

Mary Mitchell Family and Youth Center (Taqwa Community Farm)

Taqwa Community Farm yields about 10,000 pounds of food annually and a colony of bees and a dozen chickens call the farm home. The farm provides a place of peace by creating an understanding of where our food comes from, by connecting with nature and ecology, and by easing hunger. Taqwa aims to help better the community by bringing people together in a nurturing and tranquil way. The garden practices sustainability through rainwater harvesting, solar energy, and wildlife habitat.

New York, NY

Urban Soils Institute

The NRCS-supported “People’s Garden” at Governors Island is a demonstration garden developed by the NYC Urban Soils Institute in partnership with Leaf Island, a green technology company. This installation captures stormwater from surrounding rooftops and brings it to the Gaia Soil Floating Wetland™, an above-grade wetland that can capture up to 2’ of water and discharge it to raised beds found in the garden area. This installation requires no excavation or energy usage, adaptively reuses 85 cubic yards of recycled Styrofoam, and demonstrates the potential of green infrastructure to 1 million annual visitors on Governors Island.

Oakland, CA

City Slicker Farms

The West Oakland Farm Park is in the ancestral and unceded land of the Chochenyo speaking Ohlone people, now known as West Oakland. It is a 1.4 acre working urban farm, educational space, and outdoor recreation site created and conceived by and for the 3,000 community members in the surrounding neighborhoods. It intended to be a focal point of community pride and activity for residents of West Oakland. The park is a safe space for recreation that connects neighbors through the growing, preparing, and sharing of food; promotes environmental conservation; serves as an example of how we can reclaim the ecological integrity of the land; and expands access to healthy foods for low-income families in Oakland.

Philadelphia, PA

The U School

The U School People’s Garden is approximately 0.07 acres with a focus on food production. Vegetables and herbs, grown in raised beds and containers, are distributed to students and the community through a free farmers market. They provide cooking and nutrition education, recipes, and partially prepped food (cleaned, cubed, diced, sliced) and strive to make cooking and eating fresh grown vegetables easier.  The school food farm and school yard are open to the public and is a neighborhood gathering spot in the evenings and weekends.  

Philadelphia, PA

Urban Tree Connection

Urban Tree Connection cultivates community leadership, improves community health, and works to create a local, sustainable, and equitable food system. Through the Neighborhood Food Farms, the group helps increase food sovereignty, build community leaders, grow the participatory food system and involvement of the community, and more. They offer a diverse curriculum through their Youth Apprentice Program and practice regenerative and sustainable practices on the farm.

Phoenix, AZ

TigerMountain Foundation

The TigerMountain Foundation People’s Garden in South Phoenix works to reduce food insecurity; protect, and conserve natural resources, improve the environment; and provide a peaceful area for community members to garden, relax, and or reflect. Team leaders teach and implement environmental stewardship with practices that include seed preservation, food waste recycling, edible landscaping, erosion prevention, water efficiency and more. As part of its mission, the foundation works closely with formerly incarcerated people and those with substance abuse issues to grow and sell fresh produce through community gardens.

Phoenix, AZ

Local First Arizona

 

Heart & Soil People’s Garden

The Heart and Soil Community Garden is a food-growing space and pollinator garden. The food is shared with the neighborhood and Academia Del Pueblo, a nearby elementary school.  In addition, Local First Arizona aims to engage and encourage women entrepreneurs by creating partnerships between the community, schools, and local businesses. Through the Baehive, Local First Arizona is working with an all-female beekeeping group.

Phoenix, AZ

Maricopa County Extension Services

The People’s Demonstration Farm serves as a live, interactive educational space. They provide community education on small scale farming and beginning urban farmers. Their “farm-to-table” initiative will teach farming, food handling and safety, food nutrition, and healthy food preparation.

Portland, OR

Our Village Garden

Our Village Garden builds food resilience and community leadership alongside residents of Oregon’s largest affordable housing neighborhood, New Columbia and the Tamarack Apartments. Through the People’s Garden Initiative, the organization continues to provide access to garden plots, neighborhood grown vegetables, seasonal purchasing from neighborhood growers, and access to a healthy grocery store – Village Market. Their food justice organizing removes barriers to food resilience for BIPOC households and low-income neighbors. Their model includes employing neighborhood leaders to design and deliver programming and work with the community.

Richmond, VA

Community Food Collaborative

The garden at Fairfield Middle School is maintained by the student-run Garden Club and the Backyard Urban Gardener program. The school recently transitioned a science teacher to be a dedicated community agriculturalist, who helps integrate the garden into the school curricula. The Community Food Collaborative provides a farm steward to help students run the Cornerstone Community farm during school hours so students and faculty to purchase fresh produce grown at the school. A Free Fridge allows students to visit at any time of day to take home the garden’s fresh fruits and vegetables without charge.

Richmond, VA

Real Chances

The Fuchsia Freedom Garden is a food producing greenspace and healing garden. The urban farmlet will feature a self-guided tour of artfully designed audio-enabled signage featuring Richmond's untold stories of Black Freedom.

St. Louis, MO

Seed St. Louis

Seed St. Louis established three People’s Gardens, including the Giving Garden, International Farm and Botanical Heights Community Garden.

 

The Giving Garden at Brittany Woods Middle School is supported by students in the school’s sustainability program. The school serves economically disadvantaged students in a diverse neighborhood and hosts community events with seed packet and seedling giveaways and a garden equipment swap.  

 

The International Farm and Botanical Heights Community Garden contains 28 fruit trees and 52 raised beds showcasing simple gardening techniques that are cost-effective and with materials any resident can obtain.