Seeding the City

Seeding the city logo

Parks and gardens are essential to NYC’s recovery from COVID-19.

Thanks to the generous support of each donor who contributed to our Seeding the City campaign, the 2021 growing season is off to a very strong start! We have already surpassed our goal to increase food production capacity by 20%, and there’s much more ahead this summer.  

So far this year, we’ve built 110 new garden beds, creating space across the city for 26,400 more pounds of fresh, healthy produce to be grown and provided to New Yorkers at no cost. We have also continued the vital work of greening our city’s open spaces by removing trash and diverting compostable material from landfills, planting hundreds of trees, and distributing over 1,100 seedlings.

Read on to learn how we’re ensuring that the city’s green spaces can provide even more fresh, healthy food to the New Yorkers who need it the most.

Building Gardens for Children

This spring, we built Garden Kitchen Lab's largest space to date. Learn more about our years-long partnership.

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Fighting Food Insecurity

On June 8, 2021, we returned to Our Savior’s Atonement Lutheran Church in Washington Heights to refurbish and expand a garden we originally built in 2015. The pastor requested additional garden beds after food insecurity skyrocketed in his neighborhood due to COVID-19.

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NYRP crews built the new Frederick Douglass Houses garden in May 2021.

Building Essential Access to Nature

In early May, we assisted residents of the Frederick Douglass Houses, a New York City Housing Authority property on the Upper West Side, build a new garden after their previous one had been locked and inaccessible throughout the pandemic.

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Supporters

This list includes donors who gave to our Seeding the City campaign in 2021. This list has been prepared with care but if there is an error, please notify us at [email protected].

We are grateful to our Seeding the City sponsors for their generous leadership support of our work:

Diamond Gardener
Amy Goldman Fowler and Cary Fowler
The Kors Le Pere Foundation
Bette Midler and Martin von Haselberg
Ann Ziff

Golden Shovel
Steven and Alexandra Cohen Foundation
Katharine J. Rayner

Silver Spade
Linda Allard
Todd DeGarmo // STUDIOS Architecture
Edmund D. Hollander, FASLA

Bronze Trowel
Kathy and Ben Needell
Vered Rabia
Marilyn and Jim Simons
Darcy A. Stacom, CBRE

Budding Rose
Samuel Ashner
Mica Ertegün
The Ralph and Ricky Lauren Family Foundation
Janet and Tom Montag
Darryl Pardi
Jon Recor and Daniel Stewart
Linda Wachner
Jennifer L. Wray

Blossoming Flower
Betty Y. Chen and Peter Coombe
Janice Parker, ASLA
Robin B. Tost
Bunny Williams

Sprouting Seedling
James F. Capalino
Susan Courtemanche
L & R Donner Foundation
Tony Felzen
Allen and Deborah Grubman
Helen D. Lally
Karen Lauder
Erhard Marius
Carol Wall

We thank the following donors for their support of our work:

Anonymous
Nancy Bell
Susan Bernstein
Tempest Bisang
Barbara Bodnar
Sharon Brantley-Patterson
Aliki Caloyeras
Nathan Cepis
Sara Chase
Thomas F. Comiskey
Karly Crosby
Supernova Crystals
Sahana Datta
Nichole Davis
Joseph DeFerrari
Laure Ellis
Julie and David Friedman
Claudia Ganz
Benjamin Gatus Jr.
Rebecca Godan
Dina Gress
Margaret Haney
Douglas Herold
Andrea Horbinski
Alden Hoyt
Johnnie Hugee
J&AR Foundation
Jude T. Jones
Lynn Kelly
Jan Kessel
Michele Kole
Christy Labonte
Joseph Loporcaro
Linda Mandell
Peter C. March
Kimberly Mena
Donna Mendell
Victoria Molenda
Rachel and Walker Mygatt
Katherine Nardin
Cynthia Ofer
Kelly Parrick
Elizabeth T. Peabody
Clare Pierson and Peter Humphrey
Lilli Ross
Ishween Sethi
Christopher Shen
Linda Shortman
Evan C. Shumeyko
Janet Sibarium
David Steinhardt
Nikki Y. Taussig
Tiffane Thorpe
Katelyn Vanderveen
Forest VanDyke
Caitlin Watterson
Kirk Weber
LaShawn Williams
Thomas Winner Jr
Evelyn Yanatos
Judith A. Yoepp
Janice K. Young