By Mary Marvin, Mayor of Bronxville

June 3, 2026: Started in 2016, with the first harvest in the spring of 2017, our “Giving Garden” is unique in that unlike most other community gardens, we didn’t parcel out to residents to farm a family crop, rather we dedicated the entire garden to providing fresh, organic vegetables and herbs to some of our neighbors in need, hence the name, The Giving Garden. 

A special debt of gratitude goes to Mary Liz Mulligan who truly was the mother of the garden when she chaired our Green Committee and is responsible for the concept becoming a reality.   Another faithful and enduring partner has been “Farmer Dave” Phillips, Bronxville resident and an accomplished Broadway musician as well as a trained gardener.  Our wonderful DPW staff also embraced the garden’s mission and has given countless hours of their own time to help with preparation.

The garden continues to grow and adapt to the ever-expanding needs of our neighbors.  As example, five new beds were added this season within the confines of the original space just by reimagining the configuration.

Farmer Dave Phillips has stepped down as primary farmer, but always continues to help.

We now have the wonderful services of Vin Spadafora who is a software engineer from Pelham and writes a Substack article about gardening every two weeks.

Long time Village residents Linda Howitt and Mimi McKenna have stepped up to do community outreach and expand the garden. Under their leadership, it will be more than a garden, rather a learning center to fulfill the original garden mission which has been to raise produce for donation and engage the community to inform different age groups about food insecurity in Westchester, organic growing methods, soil health and landscaping practices that support biodiversity and environmental health.

Ideas to expand the garden mission includes inviting artists into the garden to sketch or paint the plants and perhaps get our wonderful adult school involved; yoga classes in the beautiful woodchip pathways; have our young students plant seeds in compostable cups and then replant them in our garden when they germinate and perhaps an organic farming demonstration geared to our middle schoolers to explain the life cycle from plant to food to compost.

On average, 400 pounds of organic, just picked vegetables including several varieties of tomatoes and lettuces, scallions, cucumbers, peppers, beans, eggplant, carrots, zucchini and radishes are cultivated each season.  In addition, we have a special herb garden that helps to flavor salads, stews and soups and we have grown chives, thyme, basil, parsley, mint, dill, rosemary and oregano.   Lavender and sunflowers are interspersed as pollinators with marigolds strategically placed as pest controls.

All of the vegetables and herbs cultivated are delivered directly to the Eastchester Community Action Program in Tuckahoe and the CSA Soup Kitchen in Mount Vernon, after developing these relationships at our first harvest in 2017. We thank Sue Brownie and Dorothy Wickenden, our delivery angels who bring the produce twice weekly to our neighbors.

The garden thrives because the mission is simple and direct… work to help our neighbors.

It is hard to believe but in Westchester County, ranked third or fourth nationally as one of the richest counties in the country, has one in six residents who are food insufficient and our nonprofits warn that food insecurity remains a significant challenge going forward.

Of great need and consequence is food for growing children as 1 in 8 American children wake up hungry including 22% of our black children and 18.5% of our Latino youngsters. In Westchester, 71,000 children receive food assistance.

The results are indisputable that a hungry child has less energy, less ability to focus affecting cognitive, motor, social and emotional skills resulting in lower academic scores.

Food deprived children in their first three years of life have actually evidenced slower brain structure growth.

Compounding this is the corollary instances of higher rates of juvenile diabetes, obesity and even high blood pressure.

The second most food deprived cohort is our elderly neighbors where lack of nutrition manifests itself in higher rates of depression, asthma and diabetes with a staggering 65% more likely to have high blood pressure, coronary heart disease, gum disease and obesity.

In America last year, 49 million people reached out for assistance with children, seniors, people of color and households headed by a single parent most vulnerable.

Currently, our Garden endowment has a rather meager $6,222 balance, so donations are so needed and welcome.

To continue our mission, you can click here to visit the Giving Garden Website to donate or emulate our incredibly generous Bronxville Rain skincare merchant who regularly donates 10% of their proceeds every Black Friday to the garden.

I leave you with a funny anecdote from our Farmer Vin that so many of us can relate to.

In his short time in the Village, he has observed that the Bronxville squirrels are the most “diabolical rodents in the world” with the New York City variety, a meek second compared to those who reside in our one square mile.

As example, Vin was chasing a squirrel out of one bed recently while one snuck up right behind him and stole a tomato, positioned himself on top of a fence post munching with attitude and staring him down defiantly during the entire time!