Public Housing Residents Ask the Crowd to Fund Sustainability Projects
The Rockaway Youth Task Force has a long waiting list of families who want spots in its community garden, but more of those aspiring harvesters might be tending fresh veggies soon thanks to a new crowdfunding effort by the New York City Housing Authority. Most of the Rockaways was a food desert before Superstorm Sandy hit New York in 2012, and after the storm, access to fresh, healthy foods only got more limited when some retailers didn’t recover.
Wanting to help residents take things into their own hands, Rockaway Youth Task Force created its first community garden, right across the street from one of the city’s largest public housing communities, Ocean Bay (Bayside) Apartments. No one expects the gardens to meet all the participating families’ food needs, but Taylor estimates that, on average, each raised bed produces some $500 worth of food per year. What families don’t need, they may choose to sell through an onsite community market...