Help us expand our youth garden programming with a new garden design and curriculum!
Leader
Danielle Hilkin
Location
5816 Clarendon Road Brooklyn, NY 11203
Over the past two years, thanks to your generous support, we've been able to Grow our Garden and expand our Community Garden Programs. With your support we were able to hold over 15 COMMUNITY FARMERS MARKETS, 3 family-friendly MONTHLY MOVIE NIGHTS, and our largest BREUKELEN COUNTRY FAIR ever with over 800 attendees. This year, based on community feedback, we will be furthering our reach by focusing on expanding our garden-based programs for local youth.
First, we will design and build a brand new CHILDREN'S GARDEN which will include easily accessible garden beds, sensory garden, and improved signage for self-guided visitors. Garden-based educational programming focusing on biodiversity, water systems, and native plants will be developed for students to particiapte in on field trips. Next we will expand our GARDEN APPRENTICESHIP program for local teenagers who, through gardening, will learn about job skills, nutritious cooking, and community outreach.
Fidler-Wyckoff Park is home to New York City's treasured oldest house, the Wyckoff House Museum. Its one-and-a-half acres of parkland features twenty raised beds for vegetable and herb production, native plant gardens, fruit and nut trees, flower gardens, and much-needed open green space. Now that our bulbs are in bloom, we want to share this magical space with our neighbors, the thousands of school children who visit each year, and families across Brooklyn.
April 2019 - Plan and coordinate dates for all activities, recruit volunteers, and teen garden apprentices. Design youth garden and build garden beds.
May - Publish programs, market activities, and get the word out! Plant youth garden.
June - First community farmers market on 6/15 to kickoff the season.
July - Farmers markets on 7/6 and 7/13 featuring Fermentation workshop and first teen garden apprentice-led Farmers Market.
August - Farmers markets on 8/3 and 8/18 featuring garden volunteer days.
September - Farmers markets on 9/7 and 9/14 featuring Fruit Preserve making workshop and garden skill-building day.
October - Farmers markets on 10/5 and 10/12 with Garden Winterization Skills Workshop and garden volunteer days.
Access to fresh local produce and green space are scarce in our community.
Our local district, Brooklyn #17, is one of the most food insecure communities in New York City (ranking at fifth lowest out of 51) with a resounding 29% of households qualifying as "food insecure" according to recent research by the Food Bank of New York City. We offer the ONLY farmers market in a two-mile radius and the only place for neighbors to get fresh and local produce.
As one of very few open and public green spaces in East Flatbush, the Wyckoff Farmhouse is a popular destination for local families to enjoy the outdoors, engage with nature, and have access to local food. Thousands of families come and enjoy the farm each year and we are excited to offer even more opportunities and activities for our community.