Grant Houses garden finally takes root

After a two year struggle to break ground, a group of Columbia students say that the community garden they helped plant in a West Harlem public housing project is there to stay.

Members of the Grant Houses Community Garden Project, an off-shoot of Columbia’s Food Sustainability Project, reaped a successful harvest of collard greens, peppers, carrots, and marigolds last semester at the Grant Houses housing complex on 124th Street and Amsterdam Avenue after struggling to get permission from Columbia and the city since 2008.

Theo Di Castri, CC ‘12 and the project’s coordinator, said members of the group were relieved to finally get their hands in the soil.

“We’ve had regular meetings and a celebration in the fall and we’re starting to meet again for next semester,” he said.

Sarah Martin, president of the Grant Houses Tenants Association, said residents of the low-income housing project have been pleased with the cooperation between residents and students.

“Nothing has stopped us before,” Martin said. “We’re going to do what we have to do to keep it developing,” Martin said.

She added that they recently had a pot luck dinner at the Grant Houses. “We blend in very well together,” she said.

But last year, others were skeptical.

The project didn’t receive the green light from the New York City Housing Authority, and campus governing boards such as Community Impact still don’t recognize the group or give it funding.

“The NYCHA commissioner was mainly wary of it being a Columbia University project given the Columbia expansion into Harlem. She wanted to ensure that it wasn’t a PR move,” Di Castri said. “It was so much over this little plot of land.”

Di Castri said the commissioner’s concerns seemed far-fetched until representatives from Columbia’s Department of Communications began calling them about coordinating the project together.

“The last straw was when the PR department contacted us last September. Columbia was very interested in the project but we didn’t want it to become just some PR move,” Di Castri said.

Ultimately Di Castri said the group—which had split off from CU Food Sustainability Project—returned to receive necessary funds and assistance from FSP, which maintains an on-campus garden near the Northwest Corner Building.

“We went full circle,” Di Castri said. “We started out under CU Food Sustainability Project, and we’re still under them.”

According to CUFSP member Kristina Gsell, CC’12, the groups share many resources although they run separate gardens.

“We have some members of our club who work on both gardens and we share budget, and buy a lot of supplies together,” Gsell said. In addition to CUFSP funding, the Grant Houses Community Garden Project received a grant from the City College of New York.

Gsell also believes that the Grant Garden brings the mission of CUFSP to a wider audience.

“I think in general what they’re doing is great, because it’s extending our mission to the greater Harlem community, which is equally as important as raising activism on campus,” Gsell said. “We have the same goals—promoting food sustainability, but the Grant project is more focused on outreach.”

The garden project has been well received by residents of the Grant Houses complex.

“A lot of the residents were very skeptical about the garden being exposed and weren’t sure if it was a good idea, but people were really respectful,” Di Castri said.

Liz Grace, a resident of the Grant Houses, said she and her neighbors have been very interested in happenings in the garden.

“I think it’s a great program, the residents are very involved and really like it,” Grace said.

Grant Houses resident Joelle Davis expressed support for the garden, though she said she’s never been involved.

“I’ve never done anything with the garden but I think it’s good for the building … this garden can help bring people together,” Davis said.

Gsell said that the goal of any community garden is not just food, but partnership.

“It’s about redeveloping the sense of community within the Grant projects,” Gsell said.

jackie.carrero@columbiaspectator.com