A new community garden project will break ground this spring at a manufactured home complex in Dover Plains, New York, giving residents space to grow fresh food and learn gardening skills. 

The project is led by Sarah Elisabeth and Ben Schwartz, co-founders of A Farm for All in Wingdale, and is funded through a BTCF Equity Fund grant. 

Residents will be trained to build, plant, and maintain the garden, with tools, irrigation supplies, and other materials provided through the program. 

The garden will be located in front of the community center, a site residents selected during planning meetings. 

Founded in Wingdale, A Farm for All grows vegetables on six acres and runs educational programs focused on community agriculture and food access. The farm is committed to giving people, especially BIPOC and immigrant communities, access to health through food and the culturally meaningful healing properties of herbs.

Their vision of collective community care as social justice aligns with a growing network of regional farms. They collaborate with a variety of partners, including Pershing Community Farm in Poughkeepsie, and Rock Steady Farm in Millerton, a queer- and trans-led multiracial workers' cooperative. Elisabeth has also worked with Wildseed Community Farm & Healing Village, where she installed a perennial “medicine mandala” for free herb distribution. She is currently training ten BIPOC farmers at the Esopus Agricultural Center in Kingston, which she also manages.