Our Garden: Grandly Opened!

On May 20th, we officially opened the new Rooftop Garden at our Northwest Center. The weather was perfect, the garden was blooming, and we had a great turnout -- our heartfelt thanks to everyone who made it possible!

Check out this great slideshow of photos from the event below (or browse the full set on Flickr).

(Thanks to Michelle Lindsay for her fantastic pro bono photography!)

Among our guests was WAMU’s Sabri Ben-Achour, who produced this report that aired last Friday on Metro Connection -- check it out online. (Real Audio here, Windows media here)

As Mr. Ben-Achour notes in his report, our rooftop garden project is all about bringing people closer to our food -- and to each other. On those fronts, it’s already a great success! The space is not just beautiful; it also fosters opportunity for us to work together and learn from each other about how to work for healthier lifestyles and stronger communities.

Indeed, just days after our big buzzy Grand Opening, we quietly conducted the very first harvest from our garden. Longtime Bread for the City client George joined us during "open garden" hours (Mondays and Wednesdays, 9am-noon, by the way), and he clipped bags of leaves from our collard greens which are already overflowing their bed. George took some for home, and brought the rest down to the pantry to share with folks there.

"I can't have a garden at home," George tells us, "and I’ve wanted a chance to do this work for so long.” We’ve known George for a while, and we can say that we’ve never seen him so happy and excited.

So we want to say a huge Thank You to all those who attended the ribbon-cutting event and have donated in support of the program so far. This has all been made possible by your support.

Of course, this is just the beginning. We’re also building our Southeast Center garden, and we've just begun to develop programming for each site. We need your help to keep this going. And the best way to help is to give:

For $25, we can purchase and maintain five plants for an entire season.
For $50, we can organize a complete gardening-and-nutrition workshop.
Gifts of $100 or more will be honored with a name or phrase of your choosing to be painted by members of our community onto ceramic pots.
Gifts of $1,000 will be honored with the dedication of an entire bed!

Help us make this community strong and green. Give to the green roof gardens today.