US (MA): Backyard Growers wins $100K grant to help city gardeners

“If you can eat it, I can grow it,” says the founder and executive director of Gloucester Backyard Growers program, “but I’m not so good with house plants.”

She is, however, pretty amazing at other things, including fundraising.

Last month alone, Backyard Growers was awarded $135,000 — $35,000 from the Boston-based b.good foundation, then two weeks later, another grant from the Cummings Foundation — for $100,000.

This is the second Cummings Foundation grant awarded to Backyard Growers since 2013, three years after the program was launched from Lepionka's backyard on Beacon Street. Year one, the program operated on a budget of $6,500. Today, fundraising has pushed the annual budget bar to $250,000. That, says Lepionka, is what's needed these days to "keep the lights on in our office and pay our amazing staff."

The Cummings Foundation grant — from its "$100K for 100" program — supports nonprofits that primarily serve Essex, Middlesex and Suffolk counties. In Gloucester, this year's grant — awarded from 549 applicants in a highly competitive review — will go to fund expanded school programs, new garden education programs at O’Maley Innovation Middle School, and more community gardening resources for low- to moderate-income families and older adults.

Read more at the Gloucester Times