Grassroots Gardens of Western New York

OUR MISSION

Grassroots Gardens of WNY is a dedicated group of community gardeners and activists. Our mission is to share knowledge, power, and resources to grow healthy food, heal systemic harm, and strengthen neighborhood connections through community gardens.

OUR VISION 

A lasting network of land and people growing healthy communities.

OUR VALUES

Grassroots Gardens WNY operates by the following guiding values:​

Equity & Justice:

We believe equity is a human right. We are actively engaged in creating more inclusive, accessible and just operations, representation, and relationships across our garden network. This includes aligning with communities who have systematically been denied access to food and land in their fight for racial justice, food justice, and land justice. In our work, we strive for collective liberation. 

Community Leadership:

Our decisions are informed by and carried out by the people most directly impacted by them. Our collective work is open and transparent, and we are accountable to each other in love. We are directed by the strengths and needs of our community membership.

Fostering Connections:

Our work is rooted in the belief that a community garden has the power to transform a neighborhood or school. Creating a garden together is empowering - it creates environmental awareness for people of all ages and improves physical, social and emotional health. By sharing power, knowledge, and resources among our beloved community, we build our collective resiliency.

Stewardship:

We strive to use best practices in conservation and will hold ourselves to high standards as we reclaim our cities and soil from decades of industrial pollution. To us, land justice requires collective ownership, stewardship, reparations, partnership with indigenous communities, and strong advocacy to keep the control of land in the hands of the community.  

Restorative Practices:

In all our work, we do what we can to heal systemic harm by contributing to the healing of individuals, our society, and our land. The act of healing our land heals the people caring for it, and our gardens are treasured as intergenerational places to restore a right relationship with the earth and with each other.