Over the past two decades, the New York Restoration Project has created dozens of community gardens across the city. The Project’s workers help pick up trash, cut the grass and tend to the fruits and vegetables.
Key to the project’s success are its recruits from AmeriCorps, members who perform national service for about a year in exchange for around a $12,000 salary and $5,000 education stipend.
Last month, however, the Restoration Project learned that it had lost funding for its 27 AmeriCorps members — a move that means fewer workers to help forge new gardens and maintain those already established.
