‘Grassroots’ Garden and Organization Hub plans to provide a space virtually and in person for people to organize, learn, grow, and provide for themselves and the community they live in with the goal of reestablishing the generational links between our health, history, and the land we live on as a multicultural society. We are not just a space where people can come to garden. This is a hub where all the community gardens in the city can communicate and organize. An online platform as well as a physical space where garden managers, owners, employees, and community members can organize, collaborate, express grievances, learn, and build in their own communities. A space where people can talk and learn about their history through the land that we walk on everyday as well as share and sell those remedies and teachings with their community and beyond. A space where we can learn about the communities struggle first hand and create the resources that each community needs to grow.
Not just another community garden that looks abandoned and unapproachable with no visible hours of operation or connection to the community. It is one of our main goals to move toward a more cooperative city that all rely on each other to sustain. We push the idea of inter connectivity for a reason, because of the happiness and sustainability that it brings to a community. A space dedicated to getting each community more involved with their local garden, farmers market, local businesses, and history by keeping the community informed and updated digitally and in person. A space where community garden managers and owners can collaborate and connect to build stronger supply chains within themselves and with larger local farms as well as address and get assistance with problems they might be facing. A space to organize a sustainable city wide community supported horticulture system.
Americans, especially those located in urban environments have completely lost connection to this earth. NYC is such a diverse population with so many differing cultures and practices. These traditions leard back generations and generations to our ancestors who left this land fertile and strong for us to continue to grow on. We owe it to our past generations, to continue to cherish this land we live on, and learn about our health and history through what we are able to produce on it. I find it insane that we throw out fruits and vegetables because they do not look ‘perfect’. We have become so sensitized to imperfection and self sufficiency. This is an opportunity to bring that back.
We live in the city of cultural diversity but we are so disconnected to these cultures. One thing we can all find in our traditions is some sort of land work or agricultural practice. The land was sacred in many traditions for its gift of life. There is a duty to fulfill from past generations. In New York City we have the resources to reconnect to this history right down the block in the gardens that we walk past every day. But these community gardens are hurting right now, faced with lack of funding, resources, and manpower; these lifelines to our history, health, and land are suffering. People can be more involved in their community, connected to their neighbors, understanding of the earth we live on and the damage that we have caused, but also the responsibility to rehabilitate it. This is definitely a much needed push for social impact, this is a grassroots movement, not much change will happen with just one garden being helped. This is a collective struggle; everyone can benefit from the proper maintenance and management of these spaces.
When doing research and interviewing different community garden managers in New York City I found that many community garden managers need a lot of help but have nowhere to reach out that isn’t extremely costly or unrealistic. And even when they do have somewhere, which is usually a government entity, it takes weeks to hear back. They explained how if community garden managers and owners could communicate better directly, there could be a real grassroots type agricultural movement that proactively finds help and support for each other. Sharing knowledge and resources so we build as a community of gardeners in New York City , a community that is currently way too small. The networking aspect of having a garden is key to its success, you can have all the tools but if people don’t know you’re there, you basically don’t exist. The fact that many new yorkers don’t even know the closest garden to them is baffling. This horticulture initiative was encouraged and even asked for by many of the community members I spoke to.
In a broad sense, the entire New York City community is our partners but mainly community garden members, managers, and owners who we directly assist and give a platform to. Secondarily, New York City residents are a main stakeholder being that we rely on their support and participation to remain running. Community building is a main aspect of the grassroots business so finding connections within the community is essential to our progression. A lot of the informational literature and resources are going to be set up on the website for them to navigate. We will also work closely with local, small, and black owned farms, stores, and seed distributors to obtain our supplies for the garden, workshops, pop ups, and anything else we may need. One of our main virtues is that we do not support big businesses, we do everything small and believe in local economies to sustain communities.
Our organization is going to be structured into three sections: health, history, and land. The health section would handle the sale and education on medicinal herbs and remedies, health misconceptions and malpractices, as well as resources on holistic health practitioners. The history section would supply educational material on black and indigenous history as it relates to inter connectivity, land, health, African worldview and way of life. The land section would include the gardening and agricultural aspects, a forum where community garden members and managers can express their grievances, solicit help, and talk to their community; the physical community garden (ours as well as a map of gardens citywide), workshops, and hands-on classes provided at sliding scale prices. We plan on doing events like pop up shops, gardening workshops, and community garden member meetings. We also plan to assist community gardens in the many obstacles they face in NYC. Lastly, we will provide community outreach and organization to get each community more involved in their local community garden.
We will be looking into government grants, loans, and subsidies that we can obtain whilst doing community work. The American public gardens association, NYC department of parks and recreation, GrowNYC, and GreenThumb are all organizations and entities that assist in opening and maintaining a public garden in NYC. We must remain compliant with the NYC dept of agriculture and buildings to remain open and helping the community so it is important to stay updated on their rules and regulations, and there is also a cooperative called OASIS NYC that assists in enhancing the stewardship of open space in NYC. We plan on taking advantage of all of these resources to assist us in our journey to a more cooperative community.
Since our home base is going to be in New York City, we are targeting urban environments, usually busy people with little extra time. It is important to work around different schedules, as well as have the option of both in person and online workshops, classes, and information. Our target audience does not particularly like mainstream drugs or treatment. They want to become more educated on holistic medicine and healing, interconnectivity, and the link between health, land, and history. They are becoming more conscious of what they put in and on their body. They want to increase their connection to the earth, their community, their history, and themselves. People who feel their problems may have a deeper root but don’t know how to access it. Education starts from a young age although some treatments and medicines are age restricted, our audience includes all ages at varying educational levels. In short, all are welcome and no one will be excluded.
We build our company off the customer relationships. without community engagement, we would have no audience and therefore, create no value and this venture would be pointless. I have already started the community outreach in our prototype workshop and though social media and the feedback is amazing. Customer relationships are key to keeping our business going. To create the cooperative ecosystem that we envision for the future of our community and company, it is essential that we not only build and maintain relationships between our business and the community, but also establish connections and resources between business and between community members. We will have an entire page on our website as well as a physical bulletin dedicated to community resources that anyone can access and connect through. We will also plan community workshops, parties, and meetings to foster these relationships.
We plan to communicate with our community on a weekly basis. If it cannot be in person though a workshop or event, that will be promoted on social media. We will communicate through our various platforms by video, through a blog post or article, or through our online forums and discussion boards. We have found through our prototyping that social media and word of mouth are the most successful ways of spreading word about our events, pop ups, and websites so we plan to take full advantage of these channels. We will advertise and sell products through the same channels and focus mainly on the in person and e-commerce sales and subscriptions.
Our costs for the physical space will include rent/ mortgage and utilities, cost of supplies and gardening structures like beds, walkways, tables and chairs, which will mostly be donated and recycled to promote sustainability and keep costs down. We will also be donated a lot of the gardening supplies like soil, compost, gardening tools, seeds and safety gear. The main costs are going to be rent and utilities, taxes, employees and specialists, Research and development, website development, and other logistical and operational developments we may encounter along the way.
Our revenue will flow through a few different channels. Firstly, we will run subscriptions through community supported agriculture services, a monthly online library subscription, and a monthly sponsorship option for a community garden of your choice. Product Sales will be in person though pop up shops and at our garden hub always, as well as through our website (e-commerce). We will also receive a portion of the profits made from all of the vendors that we allow to sell through our platform on consignment. We will also have weekly to monthly workshops at all different prices. Lastly, we plan on working closely with government entities and other organizations that will assist us in getting government grants, subsidies, and write offs for all of the community work that we will be providing. This diversity of our income creates more security in the future of our venture.
Prototype Testing
I created a flyer for social media advertising a ‘fall veggies learn and grow starter garden’ workshop and pop up in the lower east side and Tribeca, along with a poll to estimate who would attend. The plan is to create starter kits for each member and we build a small veggie garden that could fit on a kitchen counter, fire escape, or window sill. The kit would include a pot in the size of their choosing, soil, labels, seeds for fall veggies like kale, carrots, scallions, lettuce, beans, and other fall sustainable options. I had a few friends and family members share the flyer. The advertisement included an email to RSVP and the feedback was honestly incredible. 80% of people responded yes to the poll that they would attend a workshop like the one advertised. There were a lot of young people from 16-30 that did RSVP, as well as a few families and mothers with their children.
I ended up doing the workshop in battery park on the 20th and in Seward park on the 21st along with a small pop up shop that I already had set up through my current business, Herb Fary Collective. The turn out was actually beautiful and I really enjoyed showing the community the magic in growing your own food and connecting with the earth. The ages ranged from 3 years old to 55 year olds. My mother assisted me in running the workshop while a few friends assisted in the pop up. Being that I got my green thumb from my mother, she was a lot of help and people loved to see the mother daughter duo creating such a community organization. We did not charge for this workshop and used mostly recycled and personal supplies for the attendees to use. However, we made 700$ in revenue from the sale of herbal products and medicines which was incredible. Everyone got to take home their own personal sized starter pot and a lot of people lived the idea of recycled material. I was really happy with the outcome of the workshop and will definitely be doing and planning more in the future. Unfortunately, I was so in the moment that my phone died and i didnt get any pictures but my friend made a small video as shown in the presentation of the pop up. The experience was unforgettable and very motivating.
I realized social media is an amazing outlet to reach customers if you can reach your intended niche. Especially since it’s getting cold, I did not expect so many people to want to go outside to participate in this. I know that this type of workshop would definitely be more appealing in the summer or spring and I am going to be pushing this concept more aggressively at that time. I also realized how lucrative these workshops can be. We are not charging for the first workshop being that this is just a prototype. However, If all of the people who did RSVP attend (30), and we charge 10$ per person, minus the expenses, we would profit about 200$ in the hour long workshop. However, as expected, not everyone who RSVPed or said that they would attend ended up coming. Which is ok and understandable. If we could create these types of workshops at different times and days of the week to accommodate different schedules, we would be able to see more of a profit and community turnout. The post was only up for a few days as well, if I would have advertised for longer and worked more on pushing the flyer out, a lot more people could have been reached. But this idea is definitely something that people are willing to pay for and it is just one aspect of the business plan.
I love the idea of these workshops and the feedback from the community was incredible. There were a lot of people stopping to see what we were doing, asking questions, and making inquiries so I’m seeing this is something people in the downtown community are interested in. My next steps would include implementing a schedule of workshops and finding a way to put that schedule on the website where people can sign up at different times and dates. Maybe even include an option to pay and donate ahead of time/ when RSVPing to the workshop. Then finding a way to consistently promote and slightly alter the workshops so that they stay fresh, new, and with the times before expanding further.
Overall, ‘Grassroots’ has incredible potential to become a major source of value creation for New York City communities and a great model for other urban environments whose agricultural industry has been abandoned.