MEAL #8 | The Bronx Community Farm Hubs at the New York Botanical Garden

New York City, NY

September 23, 2023

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Text by Dr. Scott Alves Barton

The dinner honoring the 18 gardens that constitute the Bronx Community Farm Hubs at the NY Botanical Garden (NYBG) who individually and later collectively violated former Mayor Bill DeBlasio's order to close the parks and community gardens during the COVID lockdown demonstrated the value of green spaces for work, recreation and repose. In addition to providing a venue for residents and gardeners to get out of the house in the period and help embattled Bronxites to get through the pandemic crisis with more psychological ease.

A core factor for their initiative was the continued highest levels of poverty and food insecurity of Bronx County at 24.4% of the population. The lowest level is 4.5%. The gardens originally were funded by Operation Green Thumb. A sidebar to the event is that Karen Washington, the founder of B.U.G.S. (Black Urban Gardeners/Farmers), https://www.karenthefarmer.com/about, knew all of the gardens and most of the gardeners. She connected everyone together...and they began a Zoom meeting during the hard lockdown, for obvious reasons.

Their weekly calls are both cathartic and educational around gardening issues. The dinner was the first time many of them met each other in person, including their mentors at the NYBG (who often provide seed, classes on soil and plant management, etc).

https://epicenter-nyc.com/cultivating-urban-connections-through-community-gardens/

https://www.karenthefarmer.com/blog/james-beard-humanitarian-award-speech-2023

https://www.nybg.org/gardens/bronx-green-up/urban-farming-community-gardening/

MEAL #8 | The Bronx Community Farm Hubs at the New York Botanical Garden

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