Pleasantville Community Garden
Bringing Fresh Food to People in Need
PROGRAMS
Based on the success of our 1st year, we've started to expand our reach - both in where we get the food, but also where we donate the food! We are trying to stay true to our mission while doing our best to help the 20% of Westchester County residents that are hungry or food insecure. While this is a shocking number, there is no reason for this to remain a problem - so we are doing our best to help eliminate this problem. Below are the organizations we work with - to collect or to give.
Where we get it
Pleasantville Community Garden
The Pleasantville Community Garden is located on the grounds of St. John's Church located in Pleasantville, NY. This garden is the heart of the project. It was constructed over two weekends in June, 2014 by over 100 volunteers. In our first year we grew tomatoes, squash, beans and peppers. We were able to produce an astounding 500 pounds of produce from our little garden in our first year. We are well on our way to exceeding this total for 2015 as well.
We have made a wonderful partnership with the Pleasantville Farmers Market which has allowed us to greatly expand the amount of food we can donate. At the end of the market on Saturdays our volunteers go around to the participating vendors at the Market to pick up any leftover vegetables that the farmers may have. The farmers that we have interacted with have been very generous and given as much as they could. The PCG is very excited to continue working with the PFM. Click on the logo above for more information on this great organization!
Drop Off Point
As another way to promote giving back to the community we act as a drop off point for people with extra vegetables. Many people in Pleasantville have their own gardens where they grow vegetables that they or their family can eat. Sometimes during the harvest season, people find themselves with an overabundance of food that they can't eat themselves. People are encouraged to drop off extra vegetables at the garden at 8 Sunnyside Avenue, so we can bring it to those in need.
Other Gardens
Where we give it
Our main donation point is the Hillside Food Outreach which is located in Pleasantville. This amazing organization feeds 2400 Westchester residents. They have developed a program where the pantry will actually deliver food to the recipients - who typically are ill, undergoing treatment, or have multiple jobs and can't get to a pantry. We are thrilled to continue working with Hillside. Click on the logo above for more information on this great organization.
During the summer months, we are donating a market basket full of garden-fresh vegetables each week to local A-HOME residents. A-HOME is a non-profit organization that creates and manages affordable housing in Northern Westchester for low-income families and individuals and we are happy to donate weekly to the Chappaqua A-HOME residents. Click on the logo above for more information on this organization.
We have developed a strong partnership with Neighbors Link in Mount Kisco. The Neighbors Link mission is to strengthen whole communities through healthy integration of immigrants. The programming offered includes a Worker Center, Family Center, and English as a Second Language for over 2,400 clients each year. Many of the participants at Neighbors Link have a difficult time making ends meet so we donate fresh vegetables to this group weekly for distribution to the clients to make sure they have access to nutritional vegetables. Click on the logo above for more information on this organization.
We have developed a program with the Pleasantville School District to use school garden space during the summer when it was not being used by students, as a way to grow more food. We are growing and harvesting in the Pleasantville High School Garden this year and are very excited to extend our partnership with the school in coming years.