DIGGING FOR VICTORY IN THE ROOSEVELT HOME GARDEN

DIGGING FOR VICTORY IN THE ROOSEVELT HOME GARDEN

The Opportunity Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt s ties to the land and the community where they lived helped to shape the work they undertook to better society and the world. They shared a visionary understanding that the health of the natural world would determine the prosperity, even the survival, of humankind. And they both knew from their own personal experience that the home vegetable garden had a central role to play. Soon after FDR s death, the garden that fed him and his family was paved over and turned into a visitor parking lot. The National Park Service recently relocated visitor parking to an adjacent parcel of land, allowing for the restoration of the garden. Sterile pavement is becoming fertile soil. We are restoring the Roosevelt Home Garden and establishing related Victory Garden Education Programs for park visitors and youth around the country. This garden nourished, educated and inspired Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt, two of the greatest leaders in our nation s history. With your help, it can do the same for tomorrow s leaders. Half a century ago a small boy took especial delight in climbing an old tree, now unhappily gone, to pick and eat ripe seckel pears. That was about one hundred feet to the west of where I am standing now. And just to the north he used to lie flat between the strawberry rows and eat sun-warmed strawberries--the best in the world. Franklin D. Roosevelt, 1939

Visitor Center The Garden The Garden Burial Site Nearly two hundred thousand people visit the Roosevelt sites each year. The Roosevelt Home Garden is located at a nexus of pathways connecting the Visitor Center, the Presidential Library and the President s home. Once re-established, the garden will be at the heart of any park visit. Library Restoration will be complete and programs will be in full operation by the spring of 2016, in time to celebrate the National Park Service Centennial. The Home

The Experience Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt recognized that a garden is an essential source of health and human dignity as well as a means to building healthy local and home economies. This garden nourished them literally and spiritually. Going forward, it will reflect Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt s conviction that meaningful work, a connection to the land, and strong, resilient communities are key ingredients for a more abundant life and a thriving democracy. As we grow and share food in the same garden plot that fed the Roosevelt family, we will teach practical skills like home gardening, cooking and food preservation to visitors and volunteers. We will use the garden as a platform to educate and inspire the public to grow, cook, eat and share healthy food, and to engage as citizens committed to environmental conservation, strong local economies, and social justice. Educational Outreach The garden will serve as a megaphone for a nationwide effort. We will reissue updated posters and curriculum about Victory Gardens, food and nutrition, as well as other lessons and solutions from the New Deal era that retain their relevance today. We will distribute these materials digitally and in print to the general public and through a program specifically targeting public schools. In addition to reaching a national audience, the garden and its onsite programs will target the 200,000 annual visitors to the Roosevelt sites. Local outreach initiatives will emphasize reaching community members, youth, low income people and people of color.

The Roosevelt-Vanderbilt Conservancy The restoration of The Roosevelt Home Garden and the establishment of related Victory Garden Education Programs are both projects of the Roosevelt-Vanderbilt Conservancy. In partnership with the National Park Service, the Conservancy promotes the legacies of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt by supporting the preservation of the National Historic Sites at Hyde Park, New York. These include the president s home, Eleanor s home at Val Kill, and the Vanderbilt Estate, which President Roosevelt established as a National Historic Site in 1939. The Conservancy works to reinvigorate and restore the historic gardens, landscapes and forests; to protect the Hudson River viewshed; and to interpret these places for visitors so that they may be inspired by the Roosevelts and their legacy. The Conservancy aims to attract new park visitors to stimulate the economic health of the communities nearby, and to discover the history made here. More broadly the Conservancy promotes the ideals and values of Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt. Their legacy lives on in this historic place. The Roosevelt-Vanderbilt Conservancy works to ensure it can be experienced and shared in perpetuity. For more information, contact the Conservancy at info@rooseveltconservancy.org. The park Superintendent may be reached at sarah_olson@nps.gov or 845-229-9115, ext. 2033. Images on the front and back cover, and pages 2 and 6, are from public art works produced under various New Deal programs and agencies.