Mobilizing collaboration and partnerships within local communities to combat food insecurity
Mission Statement
What?
Digital Garden Alliance (DGA) is a platform that enables communities, individuals, and partner organizations to collaborate on building and managing school gardens as a means to combat food insecurity in New York, specifically in Long Island.
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Why?
Per Feeding America, over 2.7M people (including 750,000 children) in New York State, and ~221,000 people (including 65,000 children) in Long Island, are food insecure. Predominantly minority neighborhoods are disproportionately affected by food insecurity and lack of access to fresh and nutritious food. DGA's goal is to alleviate their issues to some extent.
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How?
School gardens, inspired by the War Gardens from WW I and Victory Gardens from WW II, are somewhat of a "lost opportunity" in the effort to reduce food insecurity. Summer vacations result in hardly any people being on the ground during the summer, so school gardens haven't traditionally received much traction.
A single, well-managed 15ft x 10ft school garden in Long Island can produce 100 lbs of fresh vegetables, including 20 lbs of beans, 40 lbs of squash, and 40 lbs of tomatoes. Between Nassau and Suffolk counties, Long Island is home to 656 schools. Assuming each school has its own 15ft x 10ft farm, around 65,600 lbs of fresh vegetables can be harvested annually. Even with a 10% penetration, DGA-run school gardens will be able to produce close to 6,500 lbs of vegetables, and donate them to DGA's food bank partner, Island Harvest in order to reduce the access barrier to fresh vegetables for several Long Island individuals and families in need.
When?
DGA established its first school garden in Jericho High School, Jericho, NY in Spring 2024. You can track JHS Vegetable Garden's Journey here! DGA actively managed the garden starting in the spring, through the summer and fall of 2024 and aims to continue to do so annually. The JHS vegetable garden was officially recognized by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) as People's Garden in Fall'24. DGA is also actively advocating the concept of school gardens with neighboring Long Island school communities to mobilize them to join starting 2025.
Key Focus Areas
DGA volunteers consist of local high school students and local home gardeners who are passionate about growing fresh and nutritionally dense vegetables in school gardens. DGA will donate the harvested vegetables to Island Harvest for onward distribution to underserved communities in Long Island. One of DGA's primary guiding principles is food de-commodification and as a result, what's grown is not influenced by economic factors, rather by nutrition levels.
DGA sources farm experts and educators both from within Long Island as well as online. Cornell Cooperative Extension, Island Harvest's on-staff farmer, and local home gardeners are all valuable expert resources to share community farming tips & tricks through webinars, in-person training workshops, and pre-recorded videos. DGA will host or link to authentic and verified how-to resource pages to make community gardeners as self-sufficient as possible.
DGA uses building local food systems as a vehicle to bring people together and rally around a common cause. DGA connects:
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High-school clubs focused on community service
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Island Harvest
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Local high school volunteers and home gardeners
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Cornell Cooperative Extension's Nassau and Suffolk offices
DGA Partners
Island Harvest Food Bank is a leading hunger-relief organization with a mission to end hunger and reduce food waste on Long Island. During 2024, DGA donated over 100 lbs of freshly harvested vegetables from its community gardens to Island Harvest for distribution to those in need.
Cornell Cooperative Extension (CCE) connects communities with research from Cornell University's College of Agriculture and Life Sciences (CALS) and the College of Human Ecology to enrich and empower New York state neighbors, local businesses, towns and cities.
DGA will collaborate with CCE offices in both Nassau and Suffolk counties to conduct community farming related educational workshops, and webinars
Long Island High School Students
DGA partners with Jericho High School community service oriented clubs like SOUPer Heroes Club and Environmental Club to motivate high school students to spread DGA's message about school gardens and to identify creative methods to have a steady pool of volunteers
Local Community Volunteers
Through webinars and digital marketing, DGA socializes school gardens and volunteering opportunities within local communities to attract knowledgeable and experienced home gardeners