Gateway Greening Taps Florissant Garden for Grant, Project

Florissant residents might notice the Valley of Flowers getting a bit of a makeover this spring.

The Florissant Community Garden, located near the Old Town Florissant Parnters Office on St. Francois, will receive a grant to help in its gardening maintenance efforts as well a part of gardening project, Mayor Tom Schneider announced last week.

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Gateway Greening, a non-profit organization that helps encourages communities to be stronger through gardening as well as supporting more than 200 community gardens through the St. Louis area, will provide the grant. The grant will be used to get materials needed to maintain the Florissant Community Garden.

“It’s a wholesome activity,” Mayor Schneider said. “It’s an excellent use of the property.”

“The Florissant Community Garden was selected because of their strong community group, with a clear mission, and a great site for a community garden,” James Anderson, Community Garden Coordinator for Gateway Greening, wrote in an email to Patch. “In their proposal, the Florissant Community Garden  expressed that the goal for the community garden is to have volunteers produce vegetables, grow in their own bed, for themselves as well as donate a part to a local food pantry, providing accessible healthy food to local families in need while building community and teaching children and adults how to cultivate sustainable food practices.”

In addition, the garden has been selected for participation in the Pollinators/Art/Urban Agriculture/Society/and the Environment (PAUSE) project. The project, a joint program between the Saint Louis Zoo, National Museums of Keyna and Tohono Chui Park. The $200,000 project will allow for the design and implementation of pollinator gardens and habitat sculptures to be placed in the Florissant garden.

“This provides an opportunity to educate the community on the role of pollinators in their food supply, while also providing habitat to pollinators to combat the threat pollinators face such as pesticides, pollution, disease and habitat destruction,” Anderson wrote. “In addition to the benefits for food production and pollination health, their participation offers an international cultural exchange between students from St. Louis, Tucson, and Kenya, placing the Florissant Community Garden in the greater context of international environmental initiatives.”

The grant will be presented at the March 25 City Council meeting.