Philadelphia Orchard Project Turns Vacant Lots Into Local Farms
Jun. 08, 2016
At first, the children—from Strawberry Mansion, a corner of the city not known for its lush greenery—are shy around the plants. Many of them, understandably, have never seen such urban strangers every bit these, growing exterior historic Strawberry Mansion in East Fairmount Park: Rows and rows of strawberry plants, their leaves hiding bushels of tiny, juicy fruit.
But then, a volunteer with Philadelphia Orchard Projection gets downward on his knees, and demonstrates the proper fashion to gently pluck a strawberry, fresh off its stem. He pops it in his mouth. And the children, delighted, join in. "Once they accept a little guidance," notes POP executive director Phil Forysth, "the children gorge on the strawberries. It's really fun to encounter."
The orchard at Strawberry Mansion (which held its annual Strawberry Festival last weekend) is just a few blocks from Strawberry Mansion Loftier School. But it may besides be deep in farm state. It's quiet, and dark-green, and full of promise: Fruit buds are popping upward on the peach and pear trees, still minor plenty at only three years onetime that Forsyth can nigh accomplish the tiptop branches. From here, y'all can't run across the bedraggled neighborhood that abuts this function of the park; you can't tell information technology'south in the middle of an urban desert, where well-nigh of the "greenery" is a weed-strewn lot hither or there.
To date, POP has planted 54 orchards around the metropolis. Terminal yr, POP volunteers harvested 3,000 pounds of fruit. Most of it went dorsum into the community, either taken home past the harvesters or sold at farmer'south markets, which accept SNAP benefits.
This is precisely the point of Popular, founded in 2007 past longtime social entrepreneur Paul Glover, who had a uncomplicated but powerful idea: Turn the metropolis'south 40,000 vacant lots into urban orchards that tin provide food to area residents. "I'd be riding high and low on my bike throughout the city, and I saw vacant lots amidst all this hunger," says Glover, who moved here eleven years ago from Ithaca and was Pennsylvania'southward Green Party candidate for Governor in 2014. "I knew in that location was a style to bring those together."
Pop'south starting time orchard, in a vacant lot at 7th and Snyder, was followed quickly by plantings in every office of the city, in neighborhoods, churches, schools and park country. To date, Pop has planted 54 orchards around the metropolis, some with but a few trees and plants, some with a full-calibration operation of fruit trees, berry bushes and community gardens. Last year, POP volunteers harvested three,000 pounds of fruit, from its orchards and some others around the city and suburbs (like trees on Penn's campus). Almost of it went back into the customs, either taken home by the harvesters or sold at farmer's markets, which have SNAP benefits. Forsyth says POP plants two to 3 new orchards every fall and leap, with the promise of filling every available space with gardens.
"This is making good use of Philadelphia'due south many open spaces," says Forsyth. "It's an orchard; information technology's educational; it creates spaces where people can gather to learn virtually our food systems and reconnect to nature and to other people—everyone relates to food."
For Glover, who grew upward in the Finger Lakes region of upstate New York, the lessons of Popular are essential. "I came from a beautiful city in a beautiful region, amidst nature," he says. "To discover here, thousands of children have no familiarity and access to nature is intolerable to me." In Ithaca in the 90s, Glover created the land's first regional currency, Ithaca Hours, accepted past 500 local businesses, and founded the nonprofit Ithaca Wellness Alliance, for uninsured residents. In Philly, he has founded Greenish Jobs Philly , a network for finding eco-friendly jobs and grants, and worked on a plan to build a health clinic, recreation area and community garden on the Logan Triangle. (The land was sold instead to a developer, to build a shopping mall and the Philadelphia Youth Basketball loonshit.)
The idea for POP dates back to the early 80s, when Glover lived in Los Angeles, and wrote a book advocating a more than ecologically-friendly L.A.—including a scenario in which the city could produce a significant amount of its own food. "I have long believed that nutrient production should be a permanent role of the construction, economy and culture of every city," says Glover. "That'south what Popular is working towards."
Popular orchards, large or minor, contain the same elements: Berries; pollinating bushes; and fruit trees, like figs. ("Nosotros've created fig farms all over the urban center," says Forsyth. "For virtually kids, the closest they've ever come up to a fig is a fig newton.") It's a combination that allows for fruit throughout the early summertime and fall. The park effectually Woodford Mansion, across from Strawberry Mansion, is POP's flagship orchard; Bartram's Garden houses its largest. About a third are on previously abandoned lots in neighborhoods with residents who are willing and able to take intendance of them. All are planted, maintained and harvested past volunteers from the community, usually neighborhood associations that use the gardens to educate residents about growing food, and to provide fresh produce directly to their neighbors.
In Strawberry Mansion, the East Park Revitalization Alliance (EPRA) manages the orchards at both Woodford and Strawberry mansions, using them to teach the children in its afterwards school and summertime military camp programs how to grow food, and how to eat salubrious. EPRA Executive Managing director Suku John says they have the students to the "outdoor learning centers" at least once a week during the flavor, hoping to impress on the immature residents lessons they'll take home to their families, and into machismo. "We're trying to alter the whole food culture in the neighborhood," John says. "You have to build that from the ground upwardly. These children, having these experiences, they'll never forget them. It's our promise that when these children become adults, and are the ones ownership nutrient and making decisions, there will be more options for them."
POP's 2.5 staff members screen applicants to make sure there is a stable and active grouping of neighbors, with legal and long-term access to the site; help them design the orchard and make a plan for the harvest; purchase the plants and organize POP'south ane,100 agile volunteers to aid throughout the year as needed. Each orchard also has a volunteer director trained past POP, who visits several times a flavor, helps manage the site and answers basic questions. (Like: What is this plant illness and how do nosotros get rid of information technology?) It's not just gardens that POP grows; it's a community of gardeners.
"I'd be riding loftier and low on my bike throughout the metropolis, and I saw vacant lots amid all this hunger," says POP founder Paul Glover, who was Pennsylvania's Green Party candidate for Governor in 2014. "I knew there was a way to bring those together."
"POP'due south success depends on the success of our partners," says Forsyth, a Providence native who gave up landscaping because it was too much about luxury clients and not enough most food product. "Ones that fulfill the vision of what we want the outcome to be—good product of fruit and apply as educational spaces—are the ones we recall of as successful."
The beauty of Pop—besides the literal beauty—is the style it touches and resolves so many issues facing Philadelphia. It helps the city'south ongoing endeavor to establish more trees; introduces fresh produce into nutrient deserts; brings the thrill of nature and growing to generations of people who have never picked a berry off a institute or a pear off a tree before. It also brings communities together in a safe light-green space, turning sometimes overlooked or neglected corners into havens for a neighborhood. Glover notes that Woodford Mansion used to struggle with frequent graffiti and vandalism on its historic grounds. That stopped after Pop planted its orchard.
"The matter that gets me up in the morning, is that the urban center is total of beautiful children and they deserve a urban center as beautiful as they are," says Glover. "That's my thought of progress."
Glover says he'due south always awed past the way children react to what they see in the orchards. In item, he says, it's the worms that get them every time. And no wonder. These are metropolis kids; the notion of planting a garden is surprising, and enlightening. "Every fourth dimension, we encounter kids who have never seen a worm before," says Paul Glover, Pop founder. "They carry information technology around, show it to each other—sometimes, they even name it. It's incredible."
Photo courtesy Philadelphia Orchard Project 
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Source: https://thephiladelphiacitizen.org/growing-gardeners-philadelphia-orchard-project/
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