In 2010, project founder LaManda Joy found a vacant lot in her Chicago neighborhood that had been a World War 2 Victory Garden. As a lifelong gardener and amateur historian she set about to recreate it. She secured the use of the land from the property owners and got the word out about a new edible community garden.

 In just 6 weeks, she had created Chicago’s largest edible community garden, with 150 families gardening for their own use, plus 200 sqft of “Grow2Give” beds for local nutrition programs. The Project has also created programs with local schools and social service agencies. The agency’s mission is to recruit, educate and inspire a new generation of gardeners who want to gain control of their food supply, grow their own produce organically, and make urban gardening the norm—not the exception.

 Now PGP will start another 30 gardens on vacant land, and at churches, temples and mosques on Chicago’s north side, with space for 1,000 families:

Install 5 Pop-up Victory Gardens on undeveloped land. Create the HOW2Grow Program, identifying up to 25 partners among area religious institutions, including churches, mosques and synagogues. Together, these gardens will generate a projected harvest of more than 24,000 pounds each year. Plant, manage, and harvest 5% of beds in each garden as Grow2Give beds donating up to 1200# of harvests to our food pantry partners-WIC and JCFS teen group homes- and educating gardeners on hunger and food security issues in their community. Provide gardening materials, seeds, plants and education. Manage Peterson Garden, the Project’s award-winning demonstration garden, (a USDA People’s Garden). Provide educational programs including tours, classes, hands-on gardening, harvesting and food preparation.

 The Project takes seriously its mandate to get everyone to grow their own food by addressing the  following needs and difficulties of urban gardeners:

 Knowledge & training. Today, people in urban areas don’t know how to grow food, but during WW2 Chicagoans started 1,500 community gardens & more than a quarter MILLION home gardens. 90% had never gardened before. PGP provides continuity of historical and contemporary gardening to bring this expertise back into common knowledge.

 Personal & community health Community gardeners eat more vegetables, exercise more, weigh less and feel healthier than non-gardeners.

 Food safety & security In the richest nation in the world we have families facing food shortages as well as high cost, low access, lost nutritional value due to industrialized production, poor farming practices exposing us to chemicals and pathogens, and an unhealthy eating culture leading to bad nutritional choices.

 Accessible resources One of the biggest barriers to starting a garden is not knowing where to go or how to find information. The Peterson Garden Project provides research- and use-based knowledge, affordable resources, and support for starting gardens at home, in communities, on private or public land, and in schools as well as support for acquiring equipment, training, seeds and other resources.