Peace Garden Project

Here at the Peace Garden Project, we don’t just grow healthy food, we grow healthy community. Our first gardens were started in New Rochelle, N.Y., back in 2016. Since then, we have started two additional gardens in New York, and four in North Carolina.  In addition to growing food, we look at the intersectionality between food justice, and other justice issues. We ask questions like: How is food justice related to economic justice? How is it related to racial justice, and then we work on creating more equitable systems in the communities where our gardens are located. 

This summer, we are running our first ever Youth Leadership Institute. Students are learning leadership skills while growing food.  We are also distributing Food boxes through the U.S.D.A.’s farmers to families Food Box Program. To date the Youth have distributed more than 13,400 pounds of food to families in the community in need. 

The youth in our program and the families we serve are from all backgrounds. 

We are working to eradicate the shame around food insecurity, so all of the families in the program are allowed to self-select and determine their own need.  We believe that when people have enough to eat, they are better able to engage in the world around them in healthy ways. 

We are raising money to fund our next Youth Leadership Institute. We are fundraising for internship and immersion experiences for Youth in North Carolina and New York, and our new gardens in New York, North Carolina and Connecticut. It takes $800.00 per student to fund the Youth Leadership Institute.  The donations you give will fund our next class of student leaders. However in addition to funding our student leaders, in the fall of 2020 andSpring of 2021, we plan to make all of our gardens handicapped accessible. We want to ensure that all people regardless of ability, are able to participate in Peace Garden Project programming. 

In North Carolina we have a partnership with a local farm so in addition to learning about growing food, participants in our Youth Leadership Institute have also had the opportunity to learn about farm animals. 

Your donations will help make the following possible. 

- Fall and Winter Youth Leadership Institutes for students in New York, North carolina(Eastern), and the tidewater Virginia area. 

-All gardens will be made handicapped accessible. 

- Meditative trails will be put into the gardens. 

-New gardens built in Northeastern N.C.,and Long Island, New York. 

Fresh Produce provided to families in need.