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Rockaway Resource Recovery Compost Garden

Support a compost garden in the Rockaways.

Leader

Ofelia Mangen

Location

224 Beach 97 Rockaway Beach, NY 11693

Impact areas

About the project

Rockaway Beach residents, entrepreneurs, and visitors are combining efforts to transform a 100' x 27' empty lot into a garden that displays the life cycle of compost, from food scraps to nutrients for our plants and food. The lot, which has been graciously donated by its owner, is along a route with high foot traffic during the beach (and growing!) season. RRR anticipates processing three tons of food waste from the community per month in a system of tumblers and curing bins designed by master composter, Stephanos Koullias. The garden, designed by Local Office, will include a workshop/ gathering area for community events, raised beds for a kitchen garden, and a rainwater catchment system for the adjoining two-story building. The garden will be open to the public, and volunteers will be welcome to take the fruits of their labor for use in their own homes and gardens. The all-volunteer RRR team does, and will continue to reflect the cultural and socioeconomic diversity of the Rockaway peninsula. Throughout the beach season (April-September) RRR will also host free community and school workshops on garden-to-table cooking, gardening, and composting.

The Steps

  1. September 2011 - March 2012 | planning, designing, fundraising, construction of curing bins and compost tumblers, clearing of lot, leaf drop/ collection of "browns"
  2. March 2012 | complete assembly of tumblers, build raised beds, begin planting
  3. April 2012 | begin accepting food waste, planting, begin rainwater catchment construction
  4. May - September 2012 | maintenance of compost and garden, bi-monthly community workshops

Why we‘re doing it

Rockaway is a barrier peninsula with more than 100,000 residents, over 1,900 vacant lots, a relatively large low-income population, a dearth of community services and activities, and swaths of food deserts. A community composting garden will provide a valuable environmental, educational, and health service to the community. Various community groups (i.e., Rockaway Youth Task Force, Community Board 14) have expressed their desire for and support of community gardens, and a few have been created on the peninsula. Some of these gardens do have a composting system in place, but none accept compost from the community, nor do they provide opportunities for the community to learn how to compost or to garden. The RRR garden will be a complement to existing community gardens in Rockaway, and will work to instill values and skills that are essential to resolving issues such as food deserts, vacant and abandoned lots,  and community health.

$2,053.00 / $2,053.00