Growing Healthy Cities

City Green Harvest Festival

2010-10-18T20:54:00.000-04:00

City Green Welcomes Families to Annual Harvest Festival at Eastside Park

City Green invites families to its annual Harvest Festival on Saturday October 23 from 11AM – 3PM at Eastside Park in Paterson.

There will be fun activities including face painting, games, crafts, taste testing, scarecrow making and pumpkin painting and free cider.

Eastside Park is located at 800 Broadway in Paterson. In case of rain the Harvest Festival will be held on Saturday, October 30 at the same time.

For more information about the Harvest Festival or City Green visit www.citygreenonline.org or call Executive Director Jennifer Papa at 201-444-7514.

City Green Neighborhood Garden Contest Winners

2010-09-23T22:07:00.000-04:00

Residents Receive Awards for Beautiful Gardens in Paterson

City Green Sponsors Garden Contest

—Twelve Paterson residents received awards at a ceremony at City Green’s Learning Garden for beautifying their neighborhoods with outstanding gardens. 2010

The Wonders of The Learning Garden!

2010-09-07T12:36:00.003-04:00

Campers Exploring Insects at The Learning Garden

2010-09-07T12:35:00.004-04:00

Discovering Insects at the Learning Garden

2010-09-07T12:34:00.003-04:00

Paterson Kids Enjoying City Green Learning Garden

2010-09-07T12:33:00.002-04:00

Great Radishes this Year!

2010-09-07T12:32:00.003-04:00

Harvest at City Green Urban Farm

2010-09-07T12:31:00.000-04:00

City Green Interns

2010-09-07T12:25:00.001-04:00

City Green Sponsored Harmony Project with Paterson Public Schools

2010-06-09T22:20:00.003-04:00

City Green took a trip to Garrett Mountain Reservation in Paterson with the Paterson Public School students this past week. It was the third annual Harmony Project, a City Green sponsored Environmental Field Day for Paterson Public School Environmental Clubs.

The kids enjoyed dip netting for macro invertebrates, which indicate the health of the water

Students make a "Window Farm" out of recycled materials with City Green's Education Director, Amy Jolin

LIKE GOLF?

2010-06-04T12:14:00.001-04:00

Want to support City Green Community Gardens, Educational Programming and New Urban Farm --Watch the PGA FedExCup Playoffs at the Ridgewood Country Club - August 24th - 29th. Weekly grounds passes are $50 if purchased before June 30th. 75% of Ticket Sales go to City Green. Follow the link below.Enter code: TBCEYG into the "password" field so your donation goes to City Green Green www.ticketmaster.com

Tickets for Concerts, Sports, Arts, Theater, Family, Events, more. Official Ticketmaster site

Congratulations, Jen Papa First Recipient of 2010 Hidden Hero Award

2010-05-24T22:26:00.001-04:00

The Andrew Goodman Foundation Announces Jen Papa, Executive Director of City Green as First Recipient of 2010 Hidden Heroes Award. According to the Andrew Goodman Foundation, "Hidden Heroes are ordinary people who are doing extraordinary things to change the world for the better. Our award honors and supports social activism that gets results. The Hidden Heroes program, which is being launched with these awards, is part of a new initiative that aims to inspire, educate and reward people who take personal responsibility for healing the world - carrying on the spirit and the love that inspired Andy to travel to Mississippi in 1964.Andrew Goodman, a 20 year old college student, was murdered in 1964 while participating in “Freedom Summer” – a voter registration project in Mississippi to expand black voting in the South. The Andrew Goodman Foundation was created in 1966 by Robert and Carolyn Goodman.

City Green Comedy Event Thurs. Night 5/20!

2010-05-19T11:47:00.000-04:00

“Marriage Ref” Tom Papa Headlines at Gotham Comedy Club Benefit for City Green

Comedian Tom Papa, host of NBC’s “Marriage Ref,” will be headlining at the Gotham Comedy Club on May 20 at 8PM in New York City for the benefit of City Green Inc
The Gotham Comedy Club is located at 208 W. 23^rd (between 7^th and 8^th Ave.). Tickets are $50 for the benefit of City Green and can be purchased online at www.gothamcomedyclub.com or at 212-367-9000.

(left) Tom Papa and Executive Director Jennifer Papa at last year's Gotham Comedy Event. Brother and sister team working to revitalize urban areas.

Thank you Tom and your great group of comedians for putting on this benefit for us!

2010-05-01T09:24:00.001-04:00

Board member Chris Scarlatta and Viacom volunteers came to the City Green Learning Garden at Eastside Park in Paterson today and painted the shed and spread mulch.
Hard work! Thank you Viacom volunteers!

2010-04-28T16:35:00.000-04:00

City Green, Inc. City Green, Inc. invites you to watch the PGA FedExCup Playoffs at the Ridgewood Country Club - August 24th - 29th. Weekly grounds passes are $50 if purchased before June 30th.

100% of Ticket Sales go to Charity. Follow the link below.
Enter code: TBCEYG into the "password" field so your donation goes to City Green Green.

www.ticketmaster.com

City Green's In Jersey City!

2010-04-19T20:49:00.000-04:00

We went to Jersey City Middle School #4 on Bright St. last week to help them install their rooftop gardens.The kids were focused and totally engaged in getting the work done. We thoroughly enjoyed working with all of them.The group built twelve raised beds and filled them with soil for a mix of vegetable, flower, bird and butterfly habitat plants. Actual planting will be the week of May 1.

The rooftop garden will be a natural oasis four stories above the sidewalks and hardscape of downtown Jersey City. Phase two of the project in the fall will be to install flowering trees and benches for an outdoor teaching area.

Everyone, from principal Wallace DeFillipo, teachers, and school custodial staff as well as the group of over twenty five students, were incredibly excited and enthusiastic

New Life for Paterson's Eastside Park's Greenhouse

2010-04-14T16:23:00.003-04:00

City Green, in partnership with the Eastside Neighborhood Association, has begun our program at the greenhouse at Eastside Park, which was made available by the city of Paterson. The greenhouse, located near the Department of Public Works building in the park will be used to grow flower and vegetable starter plants for City Green’s Learning Garden and many new community gardens and programs throughout the city.

2010-03-26T16:43:00.000-04:00

Garden Installation at Alexander

Hamilton Academy

March 2010 I

By Amy Jolin, City Green Education Director

We visited Alexander Hamilton Academy on Marc 11 to install two raised bed gardens. A crew of 7 seventh graders arrived first. They’d been weeded out from their peers for the privilege of visiting the garden. They were wary of getting their cldan shoes and trousers dirty, but gloves and goggles helped them get over the hurdle. Half of them pounded nails—some for the first time ever. Others picked up trash. They’d obviously been studying the project because they knew what they’d be building and some of the history of a 3 sisters garden. We got one bed built and filled and the second bed built with a bit of soil before they had to leave.

Next a big crew of second graders came leaping into the alley. They were DELIGHTED to be helping out. They loved the dirt, they loved the shovels, they loved the pails of dirt, they loved carrying the dirt. They could not get enough of it. “I LOVE doing this" was heard often.They wild with excitement and

Tom had to hustle to keep them dumping the dirt where it was needed. I stayed on the dirt pile making sure that the shovels were not swung too wide by strong little boys with very short arms and overflowing enthusiasm. Tom made sure that soil was placed in the bed rather than onto the walk.

What a Bunch of Nice Kids!

2010-03-26T15:36:00.000-04:00

The struggle to get recycling bins for Environmental Clubs has been largely solved at School 12 by one inspiring teacher. Joe Mazur collected the large plastic pickle barrels from the Paterson Pickle Company. Then he cut a round hole in the lid for cans and bottles. He cut a narrow slot for paper. For the finishing touch, he laminated a sign that tells just what should go into the barrel. Don’t they look fine!

Welcome to the City Green Blog!

2010-03-04T16:48:00.000-05:00

We're excited about letting you, our fellow gardeners, educators, neighborhood friends and families, know what's going on at our many community and school gardens and to invite you to ask questions and post comments about your garden, school, neighborhood or your own backyard. This time, we'll tell you about who we are and why we think gardening is so important to the community.

City Green has been working in Paterson, New Jersey's neighborhoods, schools, churches and organizations for over five years now and we're bursting with new ideas for next gardening season. Why are we here? And what do we hope to accomplish? First we're dedicated to helping our Paterson neighbors gain access to fresh healthy food. That's why we developed our New Ground Community Garden program and our City Sprouts Youth Garden program.

These photos tell the story of how our kids feel about watching things grow. It's a new experience for so many of them . And how they light up when they crunch into that carrot or cucumber that they put into the ground as a seedling not so long ago!

City Green is in Paterson Public Schools
Starting community gardens just naturally evolved into educational programming such as our School Grounds program . City Green now has now partnered with Paterson Public Schools to support middle school Environmental Clubs. This year we are developing and publishing City Green K-12 curriculum correlated to the NJ Core Curriculum. We’re in the schools helping teachers teach kids where food comes from, how to live a more healthy life through nutrition, and how to work together in a community. . Every age group from grade school through members of our high school internship program benefits from being outdoors planning, planting , harvesting their vegetables and enjoying their gardens.

We invite you to visit our Learning Garden at Eastside Park

8100 sq ft. garden complete with learning stations, flower gardens, bird and butterfly habitat gardens, native plantings, and winding paths for exploration. Here’s where over children came this summer as part of Paterson’s summer camp programs.

Next year we hope to start an Urban Farm with a professional farmer to oversee the sowing, planting, harvesting and storing of food crops right here in Paterson! Our high school interns from Eastside High School will help work the farm and youth gardeners from the Learning Garden will visit and learn about farming.

Its been an exciting five years watching Paterson “grow”. And we look forward to expanding to other cities.