Photo by Sandra Cohen-Rose and Colin Rose of Flicker

By Sondra Moore, Southeast PA Volunteer

In this age of food insecurity and food deserts, several organizations throughout Pennsylvania are working to improve access to healthy food in their local areas by hosting or running community gardens, while others collect and disseminate information about community gardening and other similar initiatives in various regions of the state.  Community gardens may seem archaic or quaint, but are a viable route to better nutrition and a sense that we can do something to help ourselves, and they lessen reliance on large, agricultural corporations and supermarket chains, as well as reduce our exposure to pesticides.  They also bring together like-minded people who want to make positive change in their communities.

Below we’ll highlight several of these organizations throughout the state.  This is by no means an extensive list, and we hope that, if the idea of community gardening appeals to you, you’ll explore this further and get involved in your own local area.

Southeast Pennsylvania

Some community gardens are the result of social initiatives.  One such garden, Sankofa Community Farm, is located at Philadelphia’s Bartram’s Garden, a National Historic Landmark. 

The Bartrams’ agricultural legacy and our modern commitment to food sovereignty take root at the Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden. After several years of transition, the farm is now firmly rooted at Bartram’s Garden and in our Southwest Philadelphia neighborhood, with an African focus for our work, strong local leadership guiding our vision, and renewed resources and partnerships to sustain youth development, community health, and food sovereignty.

Sankofa Community Farm runs food stands in the city from June to November.

The Pennsylvania Horticultural Society, best known in Southeast PA for its annual flower show,  maintains a list of community gardens in the area that can be found here.

Farming Philly also maintains a list of community gardens sorted by sections of the city as well as a clearinghouse of other related resources. 

Here on Farming Philly, I’ll cover this city’s vibrant and diverse urban agriculture and community gardening scene. And I’ll write about how I’m doing in my own backyard and community gardens, and how my garden neighbors and friends are doing with theirs.

Lehigh Valley

In the Lehigh area is the Monocacy Farm Project, run by the School Sisters of St. Francis, in Bethlehem PA since 2013. 

Situated on 53 acres of rolling lawns and virgin woods in Bethlehem, Pa., the 10-acre Monocacy Farm is owned and managed by our sisters as an organic and natural agriculture demonstration and production farm. The project includes a CSA farm-share program, community gardens, educational programs for children and adults, and a community service production farm dedicated to the support of low-income families, soup kitchens and homeless shelters.

Southwestern Pennsylvania

Closer to Pittsburgh, the staff at Grow Pittsburgh not only help local organizations, such as schools, build and maintain their own gardens, but also run two large farms that both grow produce and host educational programs 

At Grow Pittsburgh, we believe that everyone in our city and region should have the opportunity to grow and eat local, healthy, affordable, and culturally appropriate food. We make gardening accessible for home, school, and community gardeners and urban farmers.

The Western Pennsylvania Conservancy has a wide scope, including stewarding and preserving Fallingwater, but also partners with Grow Pittsburgh to run their community garden program.

We’ve been working with communities since the late 1970s to grow food as a strategy to reuse vacant land and stimulate neighborhood reinvestment. In recent years, the Conservancy has worked in partnership with Grow Pittsburgh and various funders to assist communities that seek to utilize their vacant land and start their own community vegetable gardens, or to improve the growing on active sites. Thanks to much community support and many volunteers, active community vegetable gardens exist throughout the region. Grow Pittsburgh has compiled a grower’s map if you are interested in learning more or volunteering at a garden in your neighborhood.

State College Area

The Penn State Community Garden revolves around the campus community and provides how-to information on gardening, as well as resources such as compost and mulch, to its gardeners. 

The Penn State Community Garden was founded in 2009 and has since grown into a diverse group of undergraduate and graduate students, faculty, staff, and community members interested in organic gardening in State College. We are an official student club and a part of Penn State's Sustainability Institute.

As a student club, the garden must reserve 50% of our plots for students every year, but we welcome Penn State faculty, staff, and State College community members to apply for the remaining plots. Plot applications typically open in March of each year.

York Area

In the York area, the Horn Farm Center, like some other of these organizations, has a wide scope that includes making garden plots available to the public as well as environmental consulting and education on beekeeping and other agricultural topics. 

Born out of the successful effort to save the farm from industrial development in 2000, the Horn Farm Center for Agricultural Education was established as a 501(c)(3) nonprofit corporation in 2004. The Horn Farm leases the farm from York County. In 2016, two milestones were reached. First, a conservation easement was placed on the 186-acre property thus preserving the farm in perpetuity. Second, the term of the lease between the county and the Horn Farm Center was extended to 99 years.  We are committed to restoring ecological health to both the fields and semi-wild spaces on the farm while providing nutritious food to our community. Our programs encourage others to learn to do the same.

Space alone prohibits us from highlighting more of these programs, but we hope that we've shown the link between growing one’s own food and community action, and left you with a sense that gardening is not always done in isolation, but can be an act of solidarity and community.

This blog was included as part of the 2020 Fall Sylvanian newsletter. Please click here to check out more articles from this edition!