Philip A. Ginsburg, General Manager Sarah Madland, Director of Policy and Public Affairs. Mei Ling Hui, Community Gardens and Urban Ag Program Manager

Size: px

Start display at page:

Download "Philip A. Ginsburg, General Manager Sarah Madland, Director of Policy and Public Affairs. Mei Ling Hui, Community Gardens and Urban Ag Program Manager"

Kevin Rogers
5 years ago
Views:

1 Date: February 21, 2019 To: Through: From: Recreation and Park Commission Philip A. Ginsburg, General Manager Sarah Madland, Director of Policy and Public Affairs Mei Ling Hui, Community Gardens and Urban Ag Program Manager Subject: Urban Agriculture Program Updates and Annual Report 2018 Agenda Wording Presentation and Discussion only of the Urban Agriculture Annual Report Speakers: Sarah Madland, Director of Policy and Public Affairs; Mei Ling Hui, Community Garden and Urban Agriculture Program Manager. Strategic Plan Strategy 2: Inspire Play: Promote active living, well-being and community for San Francisco s diverse and growing population Objective 2.3 Work with partners and neighborhood groups to activate parks through organized events, activities, and unstructured play c) Increase opportunities for urban farming and community gardening Background In 2004, the Recreation and Park Department assumed direct management of community gardens on Public Land that had been overseen by the San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners. Since that time, RPD has increased the number of gardens and services provided to gardens. RPD now supports and manages a program of 42 community gardens throughout San Francisco, comprising a total land area of over 9 acres, with 1155 plots available.

Program restructure In Autumn of 2016, the Community Gardens and Urban Agriculture Program was restructured to be housed within the Policy and Public Affairs Division.

2 Program restructure In Autumn of 2016, the Community Gardens and Urban Agriculture Program was restructured to be housed within the Policy and Public Affairs Division. Our priorities in focused on improving site conditions, increasing public access and engagement, and developing program efficiencies. General Program Statistics 42 community garden locations 1155 plots (8% increase from previous fiscal year) 3 full time and 2 part time program staff o Mei Ling Hui, Community Gardens and Urban Agriculture Program Manager o Will Lyons, Alemany Farm Site Coordinator o New Education and Development Coordinator (anticipated start date 2/23/19) o Jenn Yee, Community Garden Assistant (part-time) o Michiyo Toya, Community Gardens Assistant (part time) Garden Improvements $404K invested in site repairs and capital improvements Two gardens were fully rebuilt: Corona Heights Community Garden and Page Street Community Garden. 20 garden (48%) received infrastructure repairs; repair work focused on addressing safety concerns and increasing social engagement Staff performed reengagement at three garden sites to increase site use and community cohesion: Brooks Park Community garden, La Grande Community Garden, and Palega Community Garden

3 New Gardens Two new gardens opened In Chan Kaajal Community Garden and Geneva Community Garden $1.6M Capital investment to open Geneva Community Garden New and Enhanced Programs Volunteer Garden workdays RPD staff supported 5,500 individuals in participating in 416 volunteer workday projects in community garden that provided a total of 16,831 hours of service to the Community Garden Program. Per independent sector in the State of California, value of a volunteer hour is $ At $489,613 the value of this volunteer service is almost double the annual baseline program budget. Youth Jobs Skills Development: 25 paid youth green jobs skills program participants from Student Conservation Association and MYEEP provided 2,804 hours of service learning to RPD gardens sites. Youth workers built a dry stream bed for an ephemeral creek, a compost management information kiosk, gopher-proofed garden beds, fixed pathways and trail steps. Garden Resource Days: 271 urban gardeners obtained free materials and educational opportunities during six pop-up events. San Francisco residents obtained a total of 71 yards of compost donated by Recology, 28 yards of mulch, and 173 veggie and pollinator plant starts. RPD additionally provided a tool care station, where participants learned how to maintain their garden tools to increase the tools useful life. Workshops: Newly implemented workshop series at community garden sites served 209 urban gardeners were educated through 16 workshops on topics such as compost management, fruit tree pruning and grafting, and repairing garden features. 120 San Franciscan students aged 8-13 participated in Urban Youth Farm Camp summer 2017 and Alemany Farm grew 23K pounds of fresh produce that was provided to community members at no-cost at the end of each workday, during you-pick harvest days, and through two neighborhood pantries. 23 garden sites received weekly curbside green-waste removal from Recology this year. This new program service improved program efficiencies by annually saving 1196 staffing hours needed to properly dispose of green waste. Policy Developed guidance policy for POPOS community garden sites. POPOS are privately owned public open spaces that are a development requirement from the 1985 Downtown Plan. Supported SFDPH Agriculture Commissioner s Beekeeping workgroup. Food Security Task Force, Urban Agriculture representative. Setting up Alemany Farm as a workfare site to provide volunteer opportunities for CalFresh recipients that are required to perform community volunteer service to maintain benefits. Upcoming in 2019: Urban Agriculture Resource Center Identified as a key goal of the 2012 ordinance that created RPD s Urban Agriculture Program, the Community Gardens and Urban Agriculture Program has managed pop-up resource events since 2014.

4 Building on the success of the Urban Ag pop-up Resource Days, the RPD UA team seeks to create a permanent UA Resource Center where community members can obtain materials and educational support to increase gardening opportunities across the City. The Urban Agriculture Resource Center will expand on this by providing better access to RPD UA program staff, increase programming days for resource give-away and workshops, demonstration and educational gardening spaces, and provide ongoing gardening help desk support through the San Mateo/San Francisco Master Gardeners. Current offerings: The UA Resource Days are held approximately every six weeks in non-winter months, rotating between Golden Gate Park Community Garden and Alemany Farm, which are the two sites with large material bays where compost and mulch can be neatly stored. The program currently offers: Free compost provided by Recology Free mulch provided by the Yard or local tree companies Agriculture, native, and pollinator plant starts grown by UA program staff at Alemany Farm A seed lending library using donated seeds A garden tool care station, where community members can learn how to care for their garden tools and perform maintenance to help increase the useful life of garden tools Garden help desk support, answering community members garden related questions This program generates a significant amount of community goodwill and program interest; in the current fiscal year, a minimum of household picking up an average of 10 yards of compost and 2 yards of mulch at each event. One of the most common requests to the RPD UA team is when and how to obtain free compost and mulch, and when our next Resource Center dates are. The program has a low material cost per event, as most of the materials are donated to RPD. Our primary limitations are coordinating popup program dates to ensure minimal impact on site-partner activities and staffing coverage for popup events. Planned offerings: The Urban Agriculture Resource Center will include a greenhouse to grow vegetable starts for giveaways and for our project sites. It will also include demonstration gardens with raised and in-ground crop and pollinator plants, a fruit tree nursery, orchard space, and animal husbandry space for managed beehives. These features will all provide increased opportunity for educational programming, expanding both the scope and frequency of workshops; for example, new workshop topics focused on greenhouse management, beekeeping, and fruit tree pruning can take place on-site. While we will continue to provide workshops in community gardens to increase garden access, staffing workshops at our office space will save labor time and costs and allow the program to invite groups for specialized programming. With our incoming Education Coordinator, we will develop new youth and intergenerational programming, which will be primarily hosted at the Resource Center. The University of California Master Gardeners will further expand offerings. Master Gardeners are highly trained volunteers that are certified by the University of California to provide community service and educational outreach to support sustainable gardening. There are currently over 200 certified Master Gardeners San Mateo and San Francisco counties, though services in San Francisco are limited in comparison to surrounding counties. By partnering with the Master Gardeners, we can expand the Center s operational hours and offerings, support increased educational programming, and offer call- or drop-in support for community members seeking advice on productive urban farming.

5 Staff Recommendation Supported By: Opposed By: Attachments: Annual Report

Thank you for your support and interest in community gardens in San Francisco.

Thank you for your support and interest in community gardens in San Francisco. San Francisco Recreation and Parks Community Gardens Program Annual Report 2014 Since summer 2004, the San Francisco Recreation and Park Department (RPD) has taken a direct, managerial role of community