New Life Sprouts for Takoma Park Youth Garden

A $1,000 grant in support of a garden at which Takoma Park teens could grow vegetables has renewed hopes the project could begin during the late spring of 2011, rather than have to wait until 2012, said the member of the Recreation Committee who is working on that garden.

The Takoma Foundation awarded the grant, said Kay Daniels-Cohen, the Recreation Committee member and president of the SS Caroll Neighborhood Association, who adds she also has the “people power.” Now all that is needed is land to set up the first garden, she said. Because this phase of the project would be a pilot program, Daniels-Cohen is only looking for a 15 by 15 space, 225 square feet.

A garden for Takoma Park youths to plant and grow produce is a Recreation Committee project, which was something teens asked for in youth forums. “The background on the garden is there was [graffiti] tagging” which raised alarms, she said. “I got involved in finding solutions to such events,” and a teen forum was held where teenagers were asked to talk about what they wanted. “The teens wanted a Job Bank, they got that,” as well as activities such as resume writing, and job prepartion. “Those are things they aren’t going to get in school,” she said.

In addition, they wanted a garden, said Daniels-Cohen who has focused on using land next to the Community Center. There are two spaces she requested.  “One is adjacent to the library, not on the library grounds necessarily. The other is, there are small plots of land in front of the police station that are fallow. It had trees once, but the trees didn’t work out,” she said. “I’m still hopeful as I wait for confirmation from the city that they are going assign a space on the Community Center lot,” she said.

“If the city will give me the land (soon), we can plant,” Daniels-Cohen said, adding, “There’s still time to prep and get something in the ground to make it work this summer.” For that to occur, work should begin the first week of June, she said. “So, we’ll have a later summer garden. I really wanted it for summer time.”

If the city provides the land in time to plant a garden for the summer of 2011, Daniels-Cohen will look for about 30 teens from the teenage recreation program to start the program, she said. “My vision is we’re going to start with teenagers and have them be the leaders here, and let them remain as the leaders, but also involve seniors, younger kids, and general members of the community,” she added. Anyone who is interested and who wants to do the work—a garden requires physical work—is welcome, she said. “I’m not a person who ever turns anyone away. If someone wants to participate, I’ll find something we can all do together.”

In addition, the garden pilot is the very beginning, she said.

“I’m looking to put something over on the Pepco property for 2012. I haven’t received any answer from Pepco. It will probably require the city to negotiate memorandum of understanding,” she said.

If the garden is a success will be fairly easy to measure, she said. “We produce some tomatoes and send them home with the kids.”