A Library Farm and 150 Gardens: Urban Agriculture in Elizabeth, New Jersey

Groundwork Elizabeth works with residents, businesses and city officials on projects for a more sustainable future in Elizabeth, a dense industrial city in northeast New Jersey. Its urban agriculture program has improved food security, made fresh food easier to get, and supported green infrastructure.

Groundwork Elizabeth and National Park Service staff at the MicroFarm. NPS photo

Finding land in a city

In a city, getting long-term use of suitable land — with reliable water and electricity — is hard. Groundwork looked for chances in unexpected places. It started with a few community gardens as demonstrations, then set up a farm at a local university — until the university's priorities changed and the farm had to move. With land from the Elmora Public Library and a grant from the New Jersey Department of Environmental Protection, it founded the Elizabeth MicroFarm, the first new farm in northeast New Jersey.

The MicroFarm shows off many ways to grow food in a city: in-ground gardens, an apiary, a "library" of flowers, a food forest, raised beds and hydroponics. It is also a showcase for green infrastructure: Elizabeth's first green roof, and a rain garden that kept the farm from flooding during Hurricane Ida in 2021.

Next door, on a former brownfield the city helped clean up, Groundwork added an office, a garden shed and 50 community garden beds through Come Grow With Us!, an initiative started by State Assemblywoman Annette Quijano and community partners to bring fresh, affordable food within reach.

A network of gardens

• About 150 community gardens — at every school, housing authority property and senior center in the city.
• Educational programs for public school students on urban growing and conservation.
• The MicroFarm grows about 10,000 pounds of food a year; with the community gardens, the total is more than 30,000 pounds.
• For about two decades (the group was founded in 2003), it has taught new gardeners everything from soil health and composting to seed saving and cooking — and given neighbors new ways to connect with one another and with their food. One of its urban farmers said he never expected to farm in the city, but that growing his own food had changed everything.

Jackie Park Albaum, Groundwork Elizabeth's director of urban agriculture. Image from the National Park Service's page on the project

How they do it

In an interview with the Park Service, Jackie Park Albaum, Groundwork Elizabeth's director of urban agriculture, described the approach as "layers": nothing makes sense on its own, so the farm combines green infrastructure, conservation, raised beds, hydroponics and in-ground planting, with environmental justice — food security, fresh food, green infrastructure — as the goal.

Size. The farm is about an acre, part of it parking; food grows on about half an acre.

A partner in USDA. The Natural Resources Conservation Service, historically focused on large farms, is taking a growing interest in urban agriculture. Its Environmental Quality Incentives Program paid for a high tunnel — a semi-permanent structure, unheated and not set in concrete, unlike a greenhouse — that lets planting start in March, stretching the season for visits, especially by children.

Staff. Paid staff are few, and volunteers are essential:

Advice for others, in Park Albaum's account:

• Start small and build. Seek money from local businesses and foundations, then city, county and state grants — and budget for maintenance, not only construction; look one and three years ahead. Useful sources include Grants.gov, the USDA and its Natural Resources Conservation Service, cooperative extensions, and community development block grants.
• Keep telling people what you do and build a contact list; it helps with funding.
• Win people over. Not everyone will share your vision at first: write one-page concepts, share them, invite people to visit, and keep asking.
• Bring the city in — through its health director, parks and recreation and public works departments.
• Look for land at schools, libraries and universities, and secure long-term leases, ideally with a memorandum of understanding.
• Plan, check the plan, recruit good partners, find funding — and don't give up. Every urban community, she said, should be able to grow its own food.

More: groundworkelizabeth.org.

Sources

Based on "Urban Agriculture: A Layered Approach to Food Security and Sustainability in Elizabeth NJ," National Park Service; a work of the United States government in the public domain. The words of Groundwork Elizabeth's staff are rewritten in hubnx's own words. The page gives two different accounts of how many schoolchildren the program reaches, so no number is given here.