Charitable Community Gardens?

23 years ago

Need some help in a possible community garden venture. My organization runs a homeless shelter in the skid row area of LA and I had tossed around the idea of trying to start a charitable community garden to supply the center with some organic fruits and veggies. It wouldn't be the center's only soyrce for food obviously and I'm looking at the CG concept as a dual PR engine for people who might wish to contribute and volunteer but are wary of entering skid row to do so. I'm looking at the CG as a sort of open door into greater interation with the community at large.

Has this been done before? Does anyone have any suggestions about how I would make this a viable project? My organization would probably be unwllling to provide much in the way of resources to keep it going. It would have to thrive on donatiions and volunteer efforts without tapping into our resources very much. Is that possible? Any and all suggestions would be appreciated...

-Felicia

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Comments (2)

Karin Kostyzak - 9/10
23 years ago
Hi Felicia!
What a great idea! Can any of your clients assist? Then they would be helping to produce their own food! I would suggest going through you city council representative. There are numerous publications about starting a comm. garden. Generally, your need to find the land, contact the owner, and arrange for a lease, get liability insurance, etc. Minimum liability insurance is generally $500,000. In our case it runs $150 per year. It might be a great idea to solicit member gardeners to offset the cost of the insurance. Maybe you could get a local business to donate the cost of the insurance annually. Look into grants, too.

The tough part will be getting the land ready for planting, a great opportunity for your homeless. What about getting local college kids involved? Where are you? If you are in California, the Calif. Conservation Corps often has freebies in the form of tools, plants, compost contacts, and workers.If not, add the cost of tools into your grant application. Another idea is the Plant A Row For the Hungry program. Find a local CC and approach them, often there is such surplus in a CC that much edible food goes into the compost pile! If you are in Los Angeles, contact me and I'll arrange for that. Understand, though, that people are fairly lazy and probably won't want to drive the produce out to you :( We are currently looking for a home for our summer surplus.

If you can't get a CC going, what about planter boxes? You also won't need insurance for this. Check out the book Square Foot Gardening to see how much you can get from just a square foot of soil!!!

Contact me at my e-mail, I have lots of ideas and don't want to take up a bunch of space here. Best Luck!!! KarinK
mazer415
23 years ago
I have heard of people starting up this very thing. Contact SLUG in San Francisco, and I know there has been the same thing only with prisoners, but do not recall where it was.
I do know it has been done in a number of inner city areas, and has been very profitable, not only financially but spiritually.
I recall seeing a news report on one (I wish I could remember where) that once established the garden was able to pay for itself with the sale of organic veggies to restaurants.
If you could get donations of some tools, some water going in, and some mulch (contact tree arborists - they will drop it for free, it cuts their dump costs), Good luck
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