MAMIE D LEE GARDEN ASSOCIATION

The Mamie D. Lee Garden Association (MDLGA), a District of Columbia nonprofit corporation (the “Association") provides its members, most of whom live in an urban environment, the opportunity to grow their own healthy vegetables within DC city limits. The membership have created a thriving urban garden, Mamie D Lee (MDL) Garden, on National Park Land in the middle of Fort Totten's city streets. Our gardeners, volunteers and community members come together to plant seeds, harvest fruits and vegetables, and share stories and experiences. Our community members leave the garden with food in their baskets and confidence in their abilities.MDL Garden is located in historic Rock Creek Park near the former location of the Mamie D. Lee School (now Briya and Bridges Public Charter Schools) (100 Gallatin Street, NE) in Washington, D.C. and within a short walking distance of the Fort Totten Metro station. MDL Garden is comprised of about 1.5 acres, over 90 community garden plots, and it's has been in existence over 30 years (one of the original Victory Gardens). MDL Garden is one of nine community gardens managed and located on National Park Land in DC where individuals can lease a garden plot for a low cost and apply organic gardening practices to grow fresh, healthy, food for themselves, their families, and their communities.MDLGA provides direction and oversight to our garden community on a volunteer basis. The MDL Garden community is comprised of a diverse group of over 100 gardeners, ranging in age from early twenties to 80+ and representing at least nine different nationalities. While many of the gardeners live in the immediate neighborhood, the garden is open to everyone in the DC-Maryland-Virginia area. Gardeners are responsible for maintaining their plots and in addition perform community service to sustain the infrastructure of the garden.  The garden membership also maintains the public raised beds outside of Mamie D Lee Garden which line the public walkway to the Fort Totten Metro. These beds contain beautiful flowers, herbs, and vegetables for the enjoyment of passersby. The beds were established in part through grant funding awarded in 2011 from the National Park Foundation. The raised beds were constructed with the help of a Boy Scout troupe to earn Eagle Scout Rank.Part of the MDL Garden is dedicated for use by the Neighborhood Farm Initiative (NFI), a non-profit organization that uses their portion of our community garden space to teach best practices in urban organic gardening, with an emphasis on serving under-served populations. NFIs programming is important in that it provides a unique opportunity in DC for adults to learn to grow vegetables in a fully interactive, hands-on program, over one full growing season. In addition, MDL Garden provides garden plots to two neighboring charter schools to teach children about growing vegetables.