2008 – $10,000 General Support
During the summer of 2008, the Victory Gardens program created a quarter-acre, edible, ornamental landscape in front of San Francisco’s City Hall. The garden concept of a ‘Living Quilt’ of people and plants -a garden of community- was realized in partnership with Slow Food Nation, City Slickers Farms in West Oakland, and numerous other partners. Originally slated to be removed in the early fall, Mayor Gavin Newsom requested that the Garden stay in place through Thanksgiving. All of the organic produce that was grown over the course of the summer was donated to the Glide Daily Meals and other City food service programs.
The Victory Garden project was created in 2006 by San Francisco based artist Amy Franceschini. Teaming up with the Garden for the Environment and the City of San Francisco’s Department for the Environment, the two-year pilot project supported the transition of backyard, front yard, window boxes, rooftops and unused land into organic food production areas. Victory Gardens derived its title from the successful nationwide Victory Garden programs of WWI and WWII-redefining “Victory”, in the pressing context of urban sustainability, as growing food at home for increased local food security and reducing the food miles associated with the average American meal.