Villa-Parke Community Garden

Pasadena Community Gardens Conservancy (PCGC), a fund of the Pasadena Community Foundation, partnered with the City of Pasadena's Department of Human Services and Recreation to open the city's first public community garden at the Villa-Parke Community Center in April 2014. To build and sustain the garden, PCGC Trustees were instrumental in helping the city obtain a Little Green Fingers Community Garden Collaborative Grant from Los Angeles County's First Five LA, a county agency supported by the state tobacco tax.

PCGC's funding pledge - $100,000 over five years, or $20,000 annually - supports a University of California-certified Master Gardener to teach gardening to 30 families who will have individual plots in the roof garden, and 80 pupils who will learn to garden in the first-floor Head Start garden. In addition, funds will support a certified Nutritionist to teach cooking, diet, and nutrition classes to the community garden and to the Head Start families.

The Pasadena Community Gardens Conservancy has a vision for a sustainable network of community gardens throughout Northwest Pasadena - gardens to serve as sources of healthful fruits and vegetables, as well as centers for learning how to strengthen our bodies, create cleaner air and water, and build a greener city for all.

The mission of the Pasadena Community Gardens Conservancy is to improve family health in urban food desert neighborhoods through grants for community gardens and nutrition education.

Pasadena Community Gardens Conservancy partnered with the City of Pasadena to establish the Villa-Parke Community Center, where community members can learn about gardening, cooking, nutrition.

Pasadena Community Gardens Conservancy (PCGC) aims to provide long-term stewardship and financial support for community gardens as essential cultural, educational, and nutritional resources for the people of Pasadena. Thirty Pasadena longtime gardeners pooled their donations and started the Conservancy in summer 2012 as a Pasadena Community Foundation fund. The establishment of the public-private funded community garden at the Villa-Parke Community Center, through partnership with City of Pasadena Public Health Director, Dr. Eric Walsh, and the Human Services Director, Mercy Santoro, marks the organization's first major success. The Conservancy signed a $100,000 Memorandum of Understanding with the City of Pasadena to support a community garden serving 110 low-income families over five years. PCGC is currently working toward the creations of a second community garden in partnership with the City of Pasadena.