Forest Park Community Garden

Forest Park Community Garden (FPCG) was started by two local gardeners, Jessica Rinks and Gina Thomas, in the summer of 2009. The hope was to create a space so that people in and around Forest Park who had insufficient acces to land on which to garden could do so, to educate the community on sustainable food systems and to help supply area food pan... tries with fresh produce. In its first year 15 raised beds were built, 12 of which were rented to residents in the community. The 3 remaining beds were planted and maintained by volunteers who harvested the food grown in the beds and donated it to the local food pantry. The first year at the garden there was no water source and patrons had to water their plants using what they could carry from home. In 2010 we built 15 more beds - for a total of 30 garden plots - and were lucky to have 10 rain barrels donated which were filled by the fire department each week. Having a solution for water helped us keep the plots rented but because the space was unsecure we experienced a fair amount of theft of vegetables that year. There was also no space to store tools which meant gardeners had to lug all their tools back and forth every trip. As an organization we explored options for improving security and providing storage but because our only revenue was the small plot rental fees we charge residents along with minor fundraisers like plant and bake sales, our options were very limited. In November of 2010 we were asked by the Village of Forest Park to partner with them in applying for a Model Communities grant aimed at implementing programs to help improve the health of residents. This was an exciting opportunity for FPCG since it would help advance our mission of teaching the community how to build organic sustainable food systems while partnering with our local government. In early 2011 we learned that the Village of Forest Park had been awarded the grant that would offer us the resources to expand FPCG in a manner that was consistent with our original vision. Still, though ...Read More