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 gardens when a 10-year arrangement with the San Francisco League of Urban Gardeners (SLUG), a local non-profit, ended. Section 16.107 of the San Francisco Charter dedicates a portion of the Park, Recreation and Open Space Fund, an annual set-aside of property taxes towards the enhancement of park and recreational services and facilities, towards community gardens. The funding allocation was originally set at $150,000 per year. In 2012, this amount was increased to $200,000 per year. This report is split into four sections: 1. Program Achievements Fiscal Year 13/14 2. Program Facts 3. Program Spending 4. Appendices A-F Thank you for your support and interest in community gardens in San Francisco. rebuildpotrero.com Community Gardens Program Manager Melinda Stockmann, melinda.stockmann@sfgov.org Urban Agriculture Program Coordinator Hannah Shulman, hannah.shulman@sfgov.org 30 Van Ness, 5th Floor, Capital and Planning Division, San Francisco, CA 94102
Discovering the joys of community gardening
San Francisco Recreation and Parks Community Gardens Program Program Achievements Opened 2 new community gardens and provided initial plot assignment, member orientation and leadership transition: o Golden Gate Park CommUNITY Garden (October of 2013) o Palega Community Garden (February of 2014) January 2014 saw the beginning of the first ever citywide Urban Agriculture (UA) Program in San Francisco housed at RPD. The UA Program Coordinator currently supports the CG Program Manager (25% time) with additional staff time Supported non-profit organization SF Gro with its closure and accepted remainder of funds to further community gardens in SF to help fund the Open Gardens Day in 2014 (March 2014) Conducted the first of an annual community gardens survey with all our community gardens (April June 2014) to collect information on gardeners and wait list members as well as infrastructure needs [Please see Appendix B for the community garden survey sent out in spring 2014] Convened a second annual community garden coordinator gathering (May 2014) to lend support, guidance and reinforcement to our volunteer garden leadership and to work toward increased inter-garden support and coordination Created a community gardens directory with number of plots, plots turned over this year thus far, and waitlist numbers and posted to the RPD website in July 2014; also created an online form where anyone can sign up for a community garden. From its inception in July through October, 136 individuals have signed up [Please see Appendix C for an image of the new online waitlist form and Appendix D for a graph of the ratio between percentage of the waitlist and percentage of the plots available across the entire RPD system by garden] Created a waitlist strategy and began first steps of implementation. Waitlist strategy includes keeping the agency of the volunteer garden leadership as the main conduit for requests but supports them with an annual uploading of that information to RPD staff to review, and make public adjustments to the Community Gardens Directory indicating plot turnover and availability biannually (Spring/Summer 2014) Organized our first Annual Open Gardens Day (September 2014) (FY 14-15) to increase awareness of our community garden sites, to promote the great work community gardeners are doing and to encourage more folks to get involved Continued collaboration with SF Department of the Environment to create The Compost, the community gardening post, a quarterly informational guide on community gardening and urban agriculture in San Francisco Hosted a wide range of volunteer groups from schools, corporations, and nonprofits, in addition to the community garden members.
Alemany Farms thepetitepig.typepad.com
San Francisco Recreation and Parks Community Gardens Program Program Facts RPD supports gardens by repairing and managing infrastructure on site. This is completed with a team effort of the Community Gardens Program Manager, city-approved contractors, RPD s Structural Maintenance Yard and Park Service Area staff. Infrastructure improvements come at no cost to the gardeners. Water is also paid for by the agency that owns the land. The gardens themselves are governed by a volunteer coordinator or committee that manages the waitlist, maintains active gardening membership, coordinates dates where the garden is open to the public at least quarterly, manages communal garden workdays, collects a modest selfmandated fee to support general garden enhancement, and communicates regularly with RPD staff. Some gardens, including Alemany Farm, Adam Rogers, Corwin, and Koshland Park, are managed collectively by a nonprofit or friends group. These sites offer a mix of individually and collectively managed growing spaces, including row farming and food forests. Some facts about the Recreation and Park Department s Community Gardens Program: Accommodates over 1,700 gardeners in just over 1,000 plots Collectively, the gardens are almost nine acres in size In early 2014, the combined waitlist was 750 people long An average community garden in our system is about a quarter of an acre in size, has 33 garden plots, and serves 53 gardeners Our community gardeners spend > 100,000 combined hrs a year gardening Our valiant volunteer community garden coordinators collectively spend over 29 weeks worth of work a year helping steward these public spaces In total, this time is worth almost $3 million dollars! [Please see Appendix A for a map or where our RPD community gardeners are by zip code and where our gardens are located.]
Brooks Park Community Garden
San Francisco Recreation and Parks Community Gardens Program Program Spending Fiscal Year 2012-2013 RPD spent $87,157.52 on our gardens infrastructure and maintenance from the Open Space Fund. We performed 6 plumbing repairs (to hose bibs, faucets, or overall infrastructure), 10 carpentry repairs to garden beds or fences, and 5 miscellaneous repairs. Plumbing Carpentry Tree Other Total Repairs/Maintenance 6 10 0 5 21 Gardens Connecticut; Dogpatch/Miller Memorial.; Ogden Terrace; Page St.; Potrero Hill; Wolfe Lane Adam Rogers; Arlington; Connecticut; Corwin; Crags Court; Hooker Alley; La Grande; Michelangelo; Ogden Terrace; Potrero del Sol n/a Alemany; Golden Gate Park (GGP); Dogpatch; McLaren Paid $7,896.39 $76,000.69 $0 $3,260.44 $87,157.52 Of the $200,000 Open Space Fund, after staff and maintenance expenditures, there was $50,015.56 remaining. [Please see Appendix E for a graphic of gardens served in fiscal year 2012-2013] Fiscal Year 2013-2014 In FY 13-14, RPD spent $74,576.16 on our gardens infrastructure and maintenance from the Open Space Fund. Continuing our support of water conservation across community gardens in San Francisco in accordance with the larger Recreation and Park Department policies, we installed or repaired 12 hose bibs. We also installed new or improved irrigation systems at three gardens. All gardens received or are the process of receiving a low flow spray hose nozzle to reduce water waste by up to 50% per installed nozzle. In addition, we removed, assessed, or supported three hazardous tree situations and addressed 14 gardens with carpentry needs, including fence and bed repair. Plumbing Carpentry Tree Other Total Repairs/Maintenance 6 7 5 3 21 Gardens Clipper; Crags Court; GGP; Kid Power; Michelangelo; Ogden Terrace Arkansas; Arlington; Connecticut; Hooker; Ogden Terrace; Potrero Hill; Treat Commons Alemany; Crags Court; GGP; Dogpatch/Miller Alemany; GGP; Palega Paid $7,850.00 $30,000 $27,743.78 $8,982.38 $74,576.16 Of the $200,000 Open Space Fund, after staff and maintenance expenditures, there was $50,015.56 remaining from FY 12-13 and $2,252.31 remaining from FY 13-14. [Please see Appendix F for a graphic of gardens served in fiscal year 2013-2014]
Golden Gate Park CommUNITY Garden
Appendix A: Map of All Community Gardens by Zip Code San Francisco Recreation and Parks Community Gardens Program Appendices
Appendix B: RPD Community Gardens Survey 2014 Thank you for taking time to answer these questions. We hope to have the answers pulled together to share a snapshot of community gardens in San Francisco through the Recreation and Park Department at the meeting on May 17 th. We d like to build the best community gardens program we can, and we re hoping to use this information to build a consistent baseline of information we can update on a regular basis. Please return this form to Hannah Shulman, Urban Agriculture Program Coordinator, by Monday, May 5 th. You can email, fax (415 581 2540), or send the response USPS (30 Van Ness, 4 th Floor, SF, CA, 94102). Thank you! Garden Name: Garden Overall How many plots are available at your community garden? How many gardeners would you say your garden accommodates (families, people working as volunteers, etc)? Can you please share the names and contact info (email or phone) of each of your community gardeners? If a family or group shares a plot, please give the main contact. (Can send an excel document). Do you have communal areas in your garden (shared plots, common areas managed by volunteers or multiple people)? If so, how many? What do you do with your produce grown on site? If produce is donated, can you please give an estimate of how much? Does your garden have bees (tended by gardeners or someone else)? Volunteers Would you like volunteers on a one-time basis from the Recreation and Park Department to help in your garden? If so, what kinds of activities would you need them to do and what seasons are best? If so, how many volunteers do you believe you can accommodate (a range is fine)? Waitlists and Plot Management To best manage the waitlists at all community gardens, we encourage you to follow the RPD Community Garden Policies 4.2, Membership, Fees and Agreements, where it states that you must publicly post an update wait list at the garden. We ll discuss more at the May 17 th
Appendix B: RPD Community Gardens Survey 2014 convening, but to ensure that we have an adequate idea of your garden s wait list, please provide the following information: Number of garden plots turned over this year (2014 thus far). Number of people on your wait list. Names and contact information for each wait list person, as well as date they asked to be on the garden waitlist if you have it. (Can send an excel document). Capital Improvements We currently have what we believe to be an idea of what the maintenance and capital improvement requests are from your garden. Can you please confirm them here? Carpentry improvements? Yes/No. If so, please provide details. Plumbing improvements? Yes/No. If so, please provide details. Other? Communications The Compost, the Community Gardening Post, has had five issues since its inception in winter 2013. Of these, how many have you read? If you have read them, on a scale from 1-10 (1 being not helpful, 10 being very helpful), please let us know if they have been useful or helpful to you. If there are other ideas you have for the Compost or other means of communication, please share them here: Other Please use this space to let us know if there are other concerns we should know about your garden. Thank you!
Appendix C: New Online Community Gardens Directory and Waitlist Application http://sfrecpark.org/park-improvements/urban-agriculture-program-citywide/ community-gardens-program/request/ Applicant fills out form Form is automatically sent to community garden coordintors and RPD staff Community garden coordinator contacts applicant when garden plot is available RPD staff biannually updates waitlist information citywide
Appendix D: RPD Community Gardens Waitlist and Plot Information Appendix D 45.00% RPD Community Gardens Waitlist and Plot Information Across the System 40.00% 35.00% Percentage of Whole RPD System 30.00% 25.00% 20.00% 15.00% 10.00% % of Total Plots % of Waitlist 5.00% 0.00% Garden Name
Appendix E: Fiscal Year 2012-2013 Spending By Garden Out of RPD Open Space Funds Garden Plumbing Carpentry Tree Other Adam Rogers Alemany Farm Alioto Mini Park Arkansas Friendship Arlington Bernal Heights Brooks Park Clipper Connecticut Friendship Corona Heights Corwin St Crags Court Crocker Amazon Playground Dogpatch / Miller Memorial Geneva Golden Gate Park CommUNITY Good Prospect Hooker Alley Howard Langton Kid Power Koshland Park La Grande Lessing Sears McLaren Park Michealangelo Playground Noe Beaver Ogden Terrace Page St Page Laguna Palega Park St Potrero del Sol Potrero Hill Treat Commons Victoria Manalo Draves Visitation Valley Greenway White Crane Springs Wolfe Lane
Appendix F: Fiscal Year 2013-2014 Spending By Garden Out of RPD Open Space Funds Garden Plumbing Carpentry Tree Other Adam Rogers Alemany Farm Alioto Mini Park Arkansas Friendship Arlington Bernal Heights Brooks Park Clipper Connecticut Friendship Corona Heights Corwin St Crags Court Crocker Amazon Playground Dogpatch / Miller Memorial Geneva Golden Gate Park CommUNITY Good Prospect Hooker Alley Howard Langton Kid Power Koshland Park La Grande Lessing Sears McLaren Park Michealangelo Playground Noe Beaver Ogden Terrace Page St Page Laguna Palega Park St Potrero del Sol Potrero Hill Treat Commons Victoria Manalo Draves Visitation Valley Greenway White Crane Springs Wolfe Lane
Arlington Community Garden