Urban Agriculture at the U.S. Botanic Garden
The U.S. Botanic Garden has partnered with Chicago Botanic Garden’s Windy City Harvest, an established urban agriculture program within the public gardens community, to develop a train-the-trainer program.
The U.S. Botanic Garden partnered with the American Public Gardens Association (the Association) to offer immediate support to urban agriculture and other urban food-growing programs at public gardens affected by the COVID-19 pandemic. In June 2020, the USBG and the Association established the Urban Agriculture Resilience Program to grow capacity, prevent shortfalls, and gather best practices from established programs across the U.S. public garden community. The partnership made awards to 28 public gardens across the United States to help sustain urban agriculture and community food growing during this challenging time.
With the assistance of these funds, participating gardens in 19 states and Washington, D.C., are growing and distributing produce, especially to communities with food access challenges; maintaining and expanding urban agriculture and other food growing education programs; and promoting wellness and nutrition by educating the public about growing and consuming fruits and vegetables. Beyond offering immediate support, the Urban Agriculture Resilience Program will provide insight into successful approaches and future opportunities for public gardens to improve food access and advance food and agriculture education in urban communities.
