Food Empowerment at the Ithaca Community Gardens

“There’re only two things that money can’t buy — true love and home grown tomatoes.”
This quote from one of the gardeners at the Ithaca Community Gardens sums up well what the community gardens are about. Long-time Ithacans garden alongside newly arrived immigrants, students, retirees, and families. Gardeners learn from one another and share tools, seeds, and advice while admiring each other’s handiwork. It’s a place where the values of cooperation and community are practiced every day.

The Gardens embody food empowerment in Ithaca. People from all walks of life grow their own organic healthy food, while being part of a tight community of fellow gardeners. Our two acres of growing space are especially important for community members who don’t have access to private yards, or whose yards are contaminated with heavy metals. Located just off Route 13 near the Farmers Market, our Gardens are easily reachable by foot, bicycle, car or car sharing, or public transit. For only a few dollars a year, gardeners can supplement their diets with home-grown produce throughout the growing season. Our garden plots can also be used to grow perennials and overwintering crops, as we allow our gardeners to keep the same plot from one year to the next. The Gardens are buzzing with families, children, and people chatting and sharing plants all season long.

The Ithaca Community Gardens also generates food empowerment by engaging with a diverse community and serving a broad range of needs in concrete ways. Our registration and outreach committee distributes flyers each year throughout the City, in five different languages to reach as broad an audience as possible. Nearly 60% of our gardeners are low to moderate income, and we offer scholarships to ensure that our resources are available to everyone regardless of ability to pay. We provide service learning opportunities for student groups, and act as a resource for student projects related to urban and community gardening. We host a composting site for Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Master Composters program, where community members can come to learn about composting and to compost their kitchen food scraps. And we partner with Friendship Donations Network, Loaves and Fishes, Tompkins Community Action, and Mutual Aid Tompkins to donate fresh produce to food pantries, local meal programs, and food insecure individuals. Many of our gardeners donate their surplus produce each week, and we also maintain several food donation plots. The Ithaca Community Gardens donated approximately 850 pounds of fresh produce in 2018 and 700 pounds in 2019, an amount second only to Wegmans Supermarket.

Our volunteer-run organization enables individuals and families, students and community organizations to learn about and practice growing food, composting, land stewardship and civic engagement. Our activities help to build connections among neighbors, promote good health and food security, and maintain a beautiful greenspace within the City.