Seeding the City

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The Growing Season Is Calling…

Now is the time to begin Seeding the City to ensure that all New Yorkers have access to vibrant green spaces and fresh, healthy food, no matter where they live.

NYRP Board Co-Chair Helena Durst will generously match all Seeding the City gifts made by the end of June, up to a total of $150,000!

person harvesting produce from garden bed

MAKE A GIFT NOW, and we will put it to work immediately:

  • Building 17 new gardens with neighborhood partners including schools, libraries, community and health centers—these green spaces will collectively serve over 10,000 New Yorkers;
  • Hosting 125 public programs including movie nights, cooking workshops, fitness classes, story hours and more;
  • Giving away 3,500 free trees, 5,000+ vegetable seedings, and tens of thousands of pounds of mulch and compost;
  • Fully renovating an urban farm in The Bronx where community members grow corn, tomatoes, papalo, and many other culturally important crops; and
  • Providing over 130 workshops and consultations to help urban growers yield more food.

NYRP renovated New Roots Community Farm, which serves many recent immigrants, refugees, and asylees. The renovation included 26 new garden beds, a high tunnel, compost system, shade structure, and more.

Building Essential Access to Nature

“We wanted to do a communal garden where people could steward it together and share responsibilities beyond just taking care of their own beds. Now, we can increase our seed saving project and there are gardeners who want to grow specific crops from their homeland. Coming together and rebuilding this farm and making it a place where anybody can come and enjoy is the highlight of this year.”

—Sheryll Durrant, New Roots Community Farm, South Bronx

NYRP transformed a vacant yard at the Brooklyn Youth Sports Club into a vibrant garden featuring raised vegetable beds, a teaching and gathering space, and a large shade structure.

Raising the Next Generation

“Our garden is an integral part of our after-school and weekend programs. We send students home with plenty of fresh vegetables, teach them how to make pickles, hot sauce, salads…we have vastly increased our production of food. We use it for educational purposes, plant workshops, relaxation between sports or classes, as a classroom and as a space for yoga or other mindfulness activities. Dozens of students have joined the program because they saw our students learning outdoors and wanted to get involved.”

—David Zheutlin, Brooklyn Youth Sports Club

NYRP’s Eastchester Road Community Garden is a 4,400 square-foot space actively used for food production.

Fighting Food Insecurity

“We’ve got leafy greens, radishes, kale, green beans. We’ve done potatoes. Last year someone did asparagus, which is new for us. Our garden group really works well together: we all volunteer together, we share trade secrets, we share seeds, we swap plants. Being around nature is a way to calm down from the everyday city life. It’s a kind of like a stress relief.”

—Atapon Savitz, community gardener, Eastchester Road Community Garden, The Bronx

Heather Butts is a program partner and active volunteer at NYRP community gardens in Staten Island and Queens.

Transforming Green Space

“NYRP’s gardens have been spaces to organize everything from gardening projects and sustainability work to reading initiatives. The NYRP team has also helped us offer cooking demos and other wellness resources including healthy eating workshops and yoga… Now this year, NYRP will help us totally redesign and renovate part of our new garden space, which is pretty epic!”

—Heather Butts, H.E.A.L.T.H. for Youths and Skyline Community Garden, Staten Island

Like you, NYRP believes that everyone needs and deserves access to nature

For 28 years, we have worked collaboratively with residents in communities across the five boroughs to renovate gardens, restore parks, plant trees, promote urban agriculture, and build partnerships that transform the city’s landscape.

Last year, neighborhood residents grew tens of thousands of pounds of produce in our gardens, providing fresh fruits and vegetables at no cost to more than 2,000 people, and we worked with dozens of community-based organizations to transform their open spaces to do the same.

Make a gift now to help NYRP Seed the City for the new growing season!