The lives of East Harlem residents just got a little brighter thanks to the expansion of the Pleasant Village Community Garden, a neighborhood garden which provides the only affordable fresh produce to residents living in the area. The Pleasant Village Community Garden was one of four projects in the U.S. to receive a GRO1000 showcase grant from ScottsMiracle-Gro this year.
A partnership with the City of New York’s GreenThumb Division, the Pleasant Village Community Garden provides residents of East Harlem with access to affordable fresh fruits and vegetables. Located in an identified food desert community, the garden also offers nutrition programming to help empower local residents to create meals from fresh produce in their homes. With the help of GRO1000, the Pleasant Village Community Garden will be able to enhance its growing capacity and add pollinator gardens, which will increase the garden’s yield and provide additional habitats for pollinators.
GRO1000 is ScottsMiracle-Gro’s commitment to support the creation of more than 1,000 community gardens and green spaces in the U.S., Canada, Latin America and Europe by 2018, in conjunction with its 150th anniversary. To date, nearly 800 community projects have received GRO1000 funding.
The dedication of the GRO1000 New York garden expansion at the Pleasant Village Community Garden took place on Thursday, June 2. Area residents and youth joined volunteers, including ScottsMiracle-Gro associates, New York city officials, and GRO1000 national and local partners, in garden-related educational and celebration activities.
GRO1000 New York was made possible through the combined efforts of local and national partners, including The U.S. Conference of Mayors, ScottsMiracle-Gro, Plant A Row for the Hungry, KidsGardening.org, the Garden Writers Association Foundation, and Franklin Park Conservatory and Botanical Gardens.
For more information, visit GRO1000.com and follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/Scotts_MGro.
