Norristown Farm Park currently has a designated area under construction that will eventually house the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS) Green Resource Center at Farm Park, which includes a number of amenities and services to benefit our local community: a teaching farm; a greenhouse with appropriate heating and cooling systems powered in part by a solar energy shade area for seedlings; a wash station; a pavilion for public programming; pollinator gardens; a walk-in cooler for storing produce; community garden beds; and more.
With funding from the Montgomery County CARES Act Food Security Assistance and Workforce Development Program, the PHS Green Resource Center at Farm Park will support a county-wide collective action effort within Montgomery County to engage and support gardeners to grow more food for themselves and their neighbors, which is important at all times but even more critically important during the Covid-19 pandemic. The Center will also support job training efforts by YWCA Tri-County Area, which expects to serve 200 people this year.
The project construction is being overseen by the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS), an almost 200-year organization with decades of experience in workforce development, education, hands-on gardening, and community involvement.
PHS will work closely with Montgomery County and Norristown Farm Park officials to provide tools for self-reliance and combat food insecurity through initiatives ranging from seedling propagation and distribution, education and outreach, and community gardening as the PHS Green Resource Center at Farm Park becomes operational in Spring 2021.
For questions or more information on joining PHS as a volunteer, partner or supporter, please email: communitygardens@pennhort.org.