Slow Food NYC's Ujima Garden

We have a new project live! Click this link to see how you can help: SlowFood NYC's East New York Community Garden Compost and Community Programs

Help us reach our goal to expand our compost efforts, high school internships, and community event programs!

Slow Food NYC operates the Ujima garden, a community garden based in East New York. This green space has historically focused on educating youth about urban agriculture and nutrition, but when Covid-19 brought that initiative to a halt, Slow Food NYC successfully shifted to a no-cost produce distribution effort, growing food and making weekly donations to our East New York community partners: Coretta Scott-King Senior Housing Facility and the Universe City mutual-aid fridge. Between August and September 2020, we donated over 700 pounds of produce from Ujima, including tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, eggplants, okra, basil, and beans. In recognition of the ongoing food insecurity in East New York, our lead gardener is putting in longer hours planting, weeding and harvesting to distribute greater quantities of food this season, and we'd also like to expand our garden's infrastructure by installing additional raised beds to prepare us for larger produce donations to the community next growing season as well. Our project will support the labor and infrastructure needed to operate at a larger scale for the remainder of this season and beyond.

• By October 1: Lumber ordered
• By October 15: Provide first fall stipend to lead gardener
• By November 1: Lumber delivered
• By November 15: Provide second fall stipend to lead gardener
• By December 15: Host two garden workdays with volunteers to build and install the raised beds in preparation for the 2022 growing season

Slow Food NYC is the New York City chapter of Slow Food, a grassroots organization working towards a food system that is good, clean, and fair for all. We've operated our Ujima Garden since 2010, and typically host a tuition-free structured learning experience where up to 2,000 neighborhood children annually participate in learning about sustainable growing practices and nutrition education. Last year we launched a no-cost food distribution program to community partners in our East New York neighborhood. This neighborhood has the highest concentration of fast-food restaurants in all five boroughs, and rates of both obesity and food insecurity are higher in this community compared to city-wide averages. Ujima aims to provide appealing and easily accessible alternatives to the multitude of fast-food options by reinforcing our garden as a well-known and welcoming destination for healthy, nourishing food and for nutrition education. We are actively working to further remove barriers to access by distributing our fresh, garden-grown produce across multiple community sites.