Report calls for improved funding access for community gardens

Community gardens, and the benefits they provide to the communities they serve, were outlined in the state’s Community Garden Task Force 2023 annual report. 

The report also highlights an increased need for state support. Gov. Kathy Hochul proposes $2,325,000 in her executive budget to assist community gardens.

The funding would establish a community garden grant program to support the creation of new or expansion of existing community gardens, to create a community gardens leadership certification program to providing training and continuing education, and provide funding for soil testing and the associated outreach and training.

“It costs around $10,000 to $15,000 to build each community garden,” so new funding would be extremely beneficial, says Amelia LoDolce, executive director of Volunteers Improving Neighborhood Environments, Inc. (VINES) in Binghamton.

While the cost is a one-time investment that lasts anywhere from 10 to 20 years, new funding would allow VINES to not only develop new community gardens, but also provide necessary upkeep on existing ones.

“The task force listened,” LoDolce says of the annual report and proposed funding. The task force includes representatives from state agencies, existing community gardens, municipalities, school districts, other special use districts, public authorities, and cooperative extension services. 

The nation’s first community gardens were on vacant lots in Detroit during the recession in the 1890s, according to the report. During World War I and again during World War II the U.S. National War Garden Commission funded “liberty gardens” to battle hunger, but funding dwindled after the wars ended, according to the report.

While funding decreased, interest in community gardens did not. In fact, it grew even more during the COVID-19 pandemic, which exposed the lack of resiliency in the state’s agri-food value chain. With food pantries tapped to the limit and 10.5 percent of households in the state experiencing food insecurity, community gardens help families supplement their food and provide community benefits beyond food.

Some of the benefits are more visible including increased green space and recreational space, improved physical and mental health, and increased community cooperative engagement, but there are also other important benefits, LoDolce says.

Every dollar community gardeners save by growing their own produce is a dollar they can use elsewhere, she notes. That could mean more dollars to spend putting gas in their car to get to work or money to spend at area businesses.

The average community gardener can grow as much as $250 worth of food annually in a four-foot by 10-foot garden plot. “This is extremely significant for families,” LoDolce says, especially if that food is benefitting a family that receives Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program (SNAP) benefits.

According to the state task force report, community gardens also provide skills development and workforce-training opportunities. Running a community garden also helps build management skills. VINES currently operates 22 community garden sites, each one run by a volunteer, LoDolce says. Statewide, there are about 3,000 community gardens.

Other recommendations by the task force’s report include establishing a statewide dashboard or hub to share resources and knowledge, increasing coordination between community gardens and government entities, and mitigating grant-related barriers to make grant funding more accessible.

Originally formed in 2007, VINES became an independent nonprofit in 2010. It manages the community gardens program, the Binghamton Urban farm, the Grow Binghamton youth-employment program, the Green Thumb Educational Workshop Series, and the Binghamton Farm Share program weekly vegetable distribution.