Promise Agriculture

Over the last decade, Elijah’s Promise has developed Promise Agriculture into a successful program that provides garden space to residents, produces food for our community, provides pollination and honey for our city, and diverts food waste to create nutrient rich compost. Equally important, our sites leverage the process of production to engage and educate residents on how to grow their own food and urban agriculture practices. As Elijah’s Promise expands Promise Agriculture, we are increasing our commitment to sourcing a portion of the produce used by our culinary programs from food grown right here in New Brunswick. We are also exploring how Promise Agriculture can support economic development and the creation of culinary jobs that integrate locally sourced and seasonal ingredients.

Current Promise Agriculture sites include Promise Garden. Volunteers help with planting, weeding, watering, sheet mulching, pruning, site cleanup and maintenance, harvesting, and more! Promise Agriculture sites also offer free urban agriculture workshops during the garden season along with team-building experiences. Get involved with Promise Agriculture today!

Promise Garden

Location: Across from 52 Tabernacle Way, New Brunswick, NJ, 08901
Free Parking Available at Site.

Promise Garden continues to develop as a premier urban agriculture demonstration site and community garden in the heart of downtown New Brunswick, NJ. Promise Garden operates through a land-use partnership with the United Methodist Church of New Brunswick, foundational support, and the hard work of over 300 volunteers annually! This site offers 50 raised beds for local residents to grow healthy produce in the city. The garden includes an Apiculture Project with two bee hives, a Fruit and Nut Tree Orchard including Hazelnuts, Apples, Blueberries, and Raspberries, and Promise Compost which diverts over 10,000 pounds of plant-based food waste from our Promise Catering to create new soil for improving garden beds.

The garden is an outdoor classroom for New Brunswick Elementary School students who participate in Lets Cook for Kids. Over July 2017, Promise Garden hosted over 60 elementary students to learn about growing and harvesting healthy fruits and vegetables and inspired kids to learn more about local food, soil, and pollinator production.  Promise Garden also offers a variety of community events including story slams, musical performances, and educational workshops. In this way, the garden celebrates food production and community roots.

Get Involved

We are currently accepting limited slots for volunteers. Sign up for slots here.

To learn more about Promise Garden, to apply for a garden bed, and to learn about upcoming volunteer garden workdays or workshops, please email us at food@test.elijahspromise.org. In addition, when it becomes safe to do so again, we offer private team-building events for corporate and institutional teams throughout the garden season and can host up to 15 volunteers at a time at our urban agriculture sites. To learn more about team building opportunities contact us at the email address above.

We look forward to growing food for our community with you soon!