Contact Person:  Lissie Stewart, Executive Director, NOLA Artist Incubator

(2023 Community Resources Connection Community Garden of the Year)

In 2023, Galvez Garden received a $2,750 grant from Keep Louisiana Beautiful to create our Native Plant Initiative. Additionally, we were one of six gardens selected to receive $10,000 for the Cultivating the Community Garden award. This funding created our micro-farm and supported the purchase of all our raised garden beds devoted to growing food.

This year (2024) has seen a rise in our recognition and resulting financial support at Galvez Garden. We were selected as the Community Resources Connection, Inc. Garden of the Year. Along with this honor, we were able to receive an additional award of $1,250 to support garden progress through continued cooperative efforts between Community Resources Connection, Inc. and the USDA-Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS).

Capitalizing on successes, we have secured $10,500 to install the Bellarose XL Greenhouse in the garden. We received $3000 in funding to expand our children’s educational programming from Whole Foods Foundation through the Whole Kids Garden Grant, along with curriculum materials to support a formal kid gardening program. We are humbled to have been selected as 1 of 15 gardens throughout Canada and the US for the Gardens for Good Award from Nature’s Path Organic Foods. This came with $7,500 to go towards our new greenhouse, the foundation, completing the fences, and permitting. We leveraged these two grants and ultimately received an additional $3,000 from Home Depot for materials to finish fencing around the property for added security. Additionally, our organization was selected for the Imagination Fund, adding $2,000 to the budget to document the process of greenhouse preparation in a 30-day challenge with the platform. It has been such a fun, busy and exciting year of events for the Galvez Community Garden. Some of our activities include:

• Our Artist in Resident, Lilith Dorsey, M.A. hosting two workshops at the garden: creating spooky themed terrariums just in time for Halloween; and creating fiber art, dying and block printing using natural materials.

• Hosting several sustainable agricultural education workshops for the community including classes for improving soil health using crop covering; composting and vermiculture for soil health and sustainability; an autumn equinox garden seed starting, planting, and clean-up day; and serving as the meeting site for a New Orleans Urban Nature Walk tours.

• Hosting a range of volunteers from Master Gardeners to neighbors to help in the garden and/or will build projects.
  

• Harvesting and sharing all food grown and occasional starter plants to the community on our farm stand.

• Offering our weekly community compost collection in which we have just surpassed 20,000 pounds of food waste diverted from our landfills in continued partnership with Compost NOW.
• Hosting a tour of the garden to 35 Texas A&M Extension Agents in our continued partnership with LSU Ag Extension Office.
• Hosting our third annual Love the Boot Earth Day event in collaboration with Keep Louisiana Beautiful.
• Hiring Youth Rebuilding New Orleans and Urbanscapes Design + Build to assist with creating a sustainable foundation for the greenhouse that serves as a stormwater management system.
• Creating opportunities for culture bearers, artists, and musicians in celebratory events at the Garden. This year it was a second line and biodegradable glitter station, funded through the Imagination Fund to celebrate the successful completion of all our projects over the 30-Day Challenge.

In other good news, we have been able to bring on an intern from Loyola University of New Orleans during the spring who is a senior environmental science major who will be helping 8 hours a week in the garden. With her assistance and the new greenhouse. As a result of our supporters, I am thrilled to see how much more food we can grow and share with our community, and how much our small profit will grow in 2025! Thank you!

Lissie Stewart, M.Ed. Executive Director NOLA Artist Incubator