Gardening the Community

Gardening the Community GTC is a food justice organization engaged in youth development, urban agriculture, and sustainable living to build healthy and equitable communities.

GTC plays an important role in Springfield's food justice movement, working to create more access to healthy food, and building toward an equitable local food system. Youth development and urban agriculture are at the center of this work, with youth leadership development built into all levels of the organization. Youth from around the Mason Square neighborhood of Springfield and beyond grow pesti

cide-free fruits and vegetables on formally abandoned lots. The youth receive a modest stipend and are taught principles of urban sustainable living and urban farming. To encourage a more healthy lifestyle, produce is delivered to market using bikes and bike trailers. In addition to being a proud founder and supporter of the City Soul Market, GTC also runs a community-accessible CSA (a weekly vegetable share program) in partnership with the Next Barn Over, an local organic farm in Hadley. This provides residents of all income levels with additional access to affordable, locally grown food in the heart of Mason Square, one of the lowest income neighborhoods in Massachusetts. Youth participate in the GTC program throughout the four seasons, and in addition to growing food, assist in various community service and community organizing activities that involve food justice work in Springfield. GTC youth are recognized in the community for their hard work and leadership, and are encouraged to serve on GTC's Board. GTC also runs educational, garden-based summer programs in collaboration with the Mason Square Library and the Boys and Girls Club Family Life Center.

06/03/2026

Buy 2 plants get ONE FREE and an additional tomato plant for FREE courtesy of our Farm Manager Kami. Edible plants can be bought with SNAP/HIP in our Farmstore. See you soon!

Bed Prepping with our youth!, These photos show our process in creating our beds for our growing season. We first start ...
05/27/2026

Bed Prepping with our youth!, These photos show our process in creating our beds for our growing season. We first start by measuring our bed and the walkway adjacent to the bed, We use 4ft wide beds and 2ft wide walkways. We’ll then shovel the walkway and get the excess soil from the walkway onto the bed. Our next step is to lay our finished compost on top of our beds which we do by filling up a five gallon buckets with our finished compost and applying it onto the bed five feet apart from where the last bucket was dumped. Then we’ll spread the compost out evenly throughout the whole bed with metal rakes as you can see our lovely youth doing in our photo. Finally we’ll have a finished bed that’s ready to plant in with a nice walkway to accompany it.

05/19/2026

Unfortunately we have yet to resolve the internet issue here at the store, so we will not be opening today.

Back tomorrow at 10am!

05/19/2026

We're having a problem with our internet, so we can 't run sales at the moment. We'll be delayed in opening until this is resolved.

Plant sale 2026 is a wrap! Thank you soooo much to everyone who came out to volunteer and to buy plants in the rain. You...
05/09/2026

Plant sale 2026 is a wrap! Thank you soooo much to everyone who came out to volunteer and to buy plants in the rain. Your support means the world to us!

We still have lots of plants to sell so come see us next week Monday-Friday 10am-6pm and Saturday 9am-3pm!

05/08/2026

Come join us at our plant sale tomorrow from 9am-3pm at 200 walnut street, We have a great variety of vegetable, herb, and flower starts. Which are HIP and SNAP eligible excluding flower starts. Hope to see you there.

05/06/2026

Big thank you to our amazing youth, and a special thanks to our announcer Lia reminding you THIS SATURDAY MAY 9th is our plant sale from 9am-3pm. Join us at 200 WALNUT STREET. We Grow Together. See you there.

05/01/2026

LAST CALL FOR PLANT SALE PRE-ORDER!

Our pre-order at www.gardeningthecommunity.org ends tonight! We will still have plenty of plants for sale on the day of the event along with tours, fun activities and refreshments!

Don’t forget, you can use your SNAP/HIP for vegetable, fruit and herb starts!

We can’t wait to see you on MAY 9th from 9am-3pm!!!!

Liz, Isiah and Kami had a great time at the Mason Square C3 19th annual award ceremony today. Liz accepted a Community B...
04/25/2026

Liz, Isiah and Kami had a great time at the Mason Square C3 19th annual award ceremony today. Liz accepted a Community Builder Award on behalf of GTC and leaders and youth of our community were celebrated.

04/24/2026

LAST WEEK to use that
H.I.P benefit for the Month of April and also our plant sale Pre-orders on our website
Gardeningthecommunity.org end next week. Our annual plant sale is Saturday May 9th. Have a good weekend Friends!

Address

200 Walnut Street
Springfield, MA
01105

Opening Hours

Tuesday 10am - 6pm
Wednesday 10am - 6pm
Thursday 10am - 6pm
Friday 10am - 6pm
Saturday 9am - 3pm

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