The Riverside Community Garden was created last year to make a space in an urban neighborhood for people in the neighborhood to garden and grow fresh food. The group is comprised of mostlly Guatemalan-Mayan immigrants who don't have backyards where to garden. We built 25 raised beds with the help of UMass-Dartmouth vollunteers on an unused blacktop space in Riverside Park in New Bedford. The park is on the shore of the Acushnet River,  an active EPA Superfund site that is currently being dredged. Last year 22 families participated in the garden raising a variery of vegitables and flowers. The garden has been a great way for parents from agricultural cultures  to teach their children about their traditions and to connect with neighbors at the garden. The CEDC, a local non-profit helped us to organize the group and to get a small grant from the city for a tool shed  and basic equipmnet, but the city would not fund a fence to protect the garden from small children who pulled out plants. The group wants to continue the project again this season, but we were discouraged that we did not have a protective fence last year. We are seeking support from the New England Grassroots Environmental Fund to purchase hardware and posts for a pallet fence to help continue this project and to involved more members this year.