Our purpose is to create a welcoming and inclusive space where neighbors from various cultural and economic backgrounds are able to learn, teach, and grow their own food.  El Jardin has a long history in the Roxbury community, being one of the first grasssroots efforts to demonstrate the comeback of this neighborhood in the mid-1980's.   Because of it's unique connection early on to to its founders La Alianza Hispana, a predominanlty Latino-serving social service agency next door, early gardeners were all Latino. Five years ago, new leadership moved to expand gardening opportunities and reach out to non-Latino neighbors in an effort to stand against the displacement taking place due to gentrification, and create a multicultural space that embraced multiple gardening and food traditions.  For years, our garden didin't have a source of water, and depended on an abutting property owned by Nuestra CDC, another early offshoot of La Alianza HIspana.  As we have grown our gardener numbers and diversity to include youth programs at El Jardin, we have also grown aware of the wear and tear condition of other aspects of the garden. Our tool shed, our hoses, our plot dividers and tools need replacement.  The common areas that were initially landscaped to increase the appeal of our garden also require attention to their landscaping.  Simultanenously, more interest has surfaced to transform such common spaces into learning spaces.