Beantown Jewish Gardens

At A Glance

Contact: 

Leora Mallach

Location: 

Framingham, Massachusetts

Primary Issue Area:

  • Food
  • Living Economies
  • Environmental Health

Active since:

2011

Grants Received In:

  • 2011

Core volunteers:

14

Community Size:

781,518

Group Links:

  • A Brigade Meetup

Our Purpose

Beantown Jewish Gardens is building community through experiential food and agriculture programs rooted in Jewish text, tradition and culture. We bring people together for agricultural and food-system education and celebrations rooted in Jewish values of L’ovda ul’shomra (To Till and To Tend: Being responsible stewards of the earth); Gemilut Chasadim (Bestowing Kindnesses: Being responsible stewards of each other); and Tikkun Olam (Repairing the World: Being responsible stewards for the next generation). Our goals are:
  • To build Jewish identity through facilitating high quality earth and food based programs for a variety of Jewish community groups;
  • To breathe new life into Jewish traditions, holidays, and political action by connecting Jews to the myriad of agricultural and food traditions of our people;
  • To become a nexus for Jewish involvement in sustainable food on the basis of our core Jewish values;
  • To help the community produce high quality, locally grown food to nourish our community and our bodies.

Summary of Projects

Ganei Beantown received a grant in 2011 to start a community garden at a Jewish communal property (synagogues, Community Centers, day schools). Of the food grown, a portion is for educational purposes (Second graders harvesting and taking home the cucumbers they grew), a portion is for people who supported (monetarily or through their work) the efforts to create the garden on that site, and a portion of the produce gets donated.

Helpful Resources