Urban Farm In Newark Gets Boost From Volunteers (PHOTOS)

NEWARK, NJ — Volunteers with the Greater Newark Conservancy (GNC) and the philanthropic arm of Tito’s Handmade Vodka recently rolled up their sleeves and helped an urban farm in Newark to prepare for a new growing season.

According to the GNC, the Hawthorne Avenue Farm is a three-acre site that was formerly an open lot awaiting construction of a new school. When the school wasn’t built, stakeholders decided to use the space to produce “local, pesticide-free produce” instead of leaving it barren.

Resources at the farm include more than 250 raised garden beds that community members can adopt and cultivate, garden plots to grow produce, an orchard that includes over 120 fruit trees of different varieties, and 75 rows of fruits and vegetables. Last growing season, the farm produced more than 3,000 pounds of fresh vegetables, which were distributed to weekly farm stands and farmer’s markets, or donated to the community.

Watch a video about the farm here.

The conservancy has been managing the farm since 2012, along with the help of hundreds of residents, Newark Youth Leadership Project interns and waves of volunteers.

The well-wishers have included “Love, Tito's,” which rallied several people to gather at the farm on May 19 alongside the GNC.

Activities included tilling and prepping seed beds for a pollinator pathway, setting up an orchard irrigation line, weeding/planting perennials including blueberry bushes, and moving soil, mulch and wood chips to create windrows.

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