Renew America Success Stories

Rutgers Urban Gardening Program

Description

The Rutgers Urban Gardening Program (RUGP) is an educational public service aimed at teaching gardening skills and helping city residents establish gardens on city vacant lots. The conversion of debris-littered lots to thriving, fertile gardens improves the neighborhood environment, raises property values, and results in improved diets and socioeconomic well-being for participating low-income families and individuals residing in Newark, New Jersey and the surrounding area.

RUGP grew out of a series of pilot projects begun in six cities in the United States in 1977. RUGP was formally created in 1978 and presently more than 23 cities in the United States have adopted similar programs.

When RUGP was begun, there were more than 4,000 vacant city lots in the Newark area, many strewn with garbage and other debris. At the same time, officials knew that many Newark residents did not have enough money to feed their families adequately. RUGP offered a solution: by turning vacant lots into urban gardens, neighborhoods would be improved, land values would rise, the city's cleanup and maintenance costs would decline and most important, local residents would have access to nutritious, healthy food at a reduced cost.

Through RUGP workshops and clinics designed to improve technical gardening skills and teach good nutrition, more than 6,000 residents have learned to garden, to compost, and to use mulch in creating organic gardens.

The program protects, restores and enhances the city's environment, soil, water and air quality; improves public relations between communities and the city and results in an increased sense of stewardship regarding public lands without adversely affecting other sectors of the environment.

Program Highlights

• The city makes compost manure and leaves available to city gardeners. Each year more than 4,000 tons of leaves are turned into leaf compost for city gardening.
• More than 95% of RUGP gardens are organic gardens.
• An average garden of 700 square feet produces food valued at $500 at a cost of just $25 a year. Each garden saves its gardener(s) $450 a year.
• About 20% of program participants produce enough vegetables to feed their families for the whole year.
• RUGP helps achieve the goals of the Cooperative Extension's National Initiatives, which include:
• Improving Nutrition, Diet and Health
• Family and Economic Well-Being
• Conservation and Management of Natural Resources
• Building Human Capital

Vital Statistics

Program Management/Partnerships: The Rutgers Urban Gardening Program is managed by the Rutgers University Cooperative Extension and is supported by both the federal and state governments.

Budget: About $250,000 a year. The value of the food harvested in any given year is about $850,000 for a cost-benefit ratio of 1:3.4.

Community Served: The men, women, and youth of all ages in the Newark area. Members of every age, race, social and economic strata participate in the program. A special effort is made to involve low- and moderate-income Black and Hispanic adults, retired citizens, students and youth (especially adjudicated youth).

Measures of Success:

More than 300 city lots covering an area of 28 acres have been transformed into 2,000 lively and productive neighborhood gardens growing 60 varieties of vegetables, small fruits and other food crops.

Gardeners have saved more than $3 million over five years by growing their own food.

Gardeners donated more than 5,000 pounds of fresh vegetables and other food to the homeless and to shelter houses.

In 1993, more than 10,000 people were reached through the program.

More than 75,000 seedlings were produced in greenhouses and distributed to gardeners.

More than 170 individuals have volunteered with the program.

The program received more than $30,000 cash and in-kind donations in 1993 alone from individuals and public and private organizations.

Winner of a 1987 "U.S. President's Take Pride in America" award.

Winner of a "1992 Environmental Quality Award" from the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Success stories designed by Mark Nowak

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