Congratulations to the 2024 Lots of Compassion Winners!

Together Mrs. Meyer’s Clean Day and KidsGardening congratulate the new Lots of Compassion grant program winners! 

In 2024, the following 10 grantees will receive $20,000 each to transform a vacant lot into a garden to help grow compassion in their community. A total of $200,000 will be awarded.

BACR - Monument First 5 Center (Concord, CA)

BACR - Monument First 5 Center will transform a vacant lot into a garden to provide an outside learning space for their center families. The families come to their center to connect with one another and build community, so the new community garden will allow more opportunities for families to build social connections. The garden will be a place for outdoor learning, gardening, relaxation, and connection.

Civic Works, Inc. (Baltimore, MD)

Civic Works, a Baltimore-based nonprofit founded in 1993, envisions a Baltimore where all children and families have access to the opportunities, support, and resources they need to feel empowered, healthy, and connected. Their Community Landscaping Program engages residents throughout Baltimore in co-designing and installing gardens and mini-parks on vacant spaces, harnessing the enthusiasm of volunteers who want to reclaim lots to create green space in their communities. Their project partner, @The House, Inc., has envisioned transforming a vacant lot into a constructive environment that nourishes kids’ development. The lot will feature an herb garden and golf putting green.

Cocoplum Nature School (Delray Beach, FL)

Cocoplum Nature School will transform a vacant lot in their community into a garden to advance their vision to co-create a healthier and more just planet. They offer a variety of nature-based programs for children and families, and they also partner with other organizations within their community that share our values for eco-consciousness, gardening, sustainability, and mindfulness. Space constraints of our school campus limit our ability to incorporate gardening in our family outreach programs, and by transforming a vacant lot into a community garden, they will now be able to serve more families in new programs and enhance existing programs. They will establish “The Hive Garden” to offer a new evening and weekend gardening program for children ages 0 to 12 and their caregivers and to enhance our existing nature-based programs.

Erie Food Policy Advisory Council (Erie, PA)

The Erie Food Policy Advisory Council is part of a network of local organizations, leaders, and growers who have already demonstrated the power of reclaiming vacant lots to promote beauty, well-being, and community-building in Erie, Pennsylvania. In partnership with multiple urban gardeners and two nonprofit organizations, they operate a Pay-What-You-Can Market model in Erie County that enables their neighbors to access fresh, culturally appropriate, locally grown food in easily accessible locations at a sliding scale. They will transform a vacant lot to grow food for markets and Emmaus Ministries, which provides free meals and food for their community. In addition to providing access to affordable, high-quality foods, the development of this lot will provide an educational and community-building space – especially for women, children, and New Americans who are particularly active community members in the neighborhood around the lot.

Killeen Creators (Killeen, TX)

Killeen Creators has created and maintained four community gardens on vacant lots in North Killeen, the area of our majority-minority city designated a food desert and lacking public transportation. But they know that the cycles of poverty created by systemic racism, trauma, mental illness, and addiction will only be broken if their youth help learn and then lead the way to a more compassionate urban design and development model where no one is allowed to go unhoused or hungry. Through a partnership with IMPossible Teen Club, they will create a community garden led and managed by IMPossible's Teen Community Garden members in order to foster greater compassion for themselves, their bodies, their peers, plants, pollinators, and the planet.

Malama Sanctuary (Pahoa, HI)

Malama Sanctuary stands at the intersection of social work, sustainable agriculture, and animal welfare, and transforming a vacant lot into a garden aligns with their mission of promoting sustainability and compassion. The vacant lot will be transformed into a demonstration garden that not only provides culturally relevant food for the community, preserves disease-resistant coconut varieties, but also shows how fruits and vegetables can be grown in backyards to produce extra income.

SustainEd Farms (Edgewater, CO)

The vision for SustainEd Farms’ project is to design, install, plant, and maintain a food forest and annual garden beds that will be integrated into work-study programs for high school students. Students will learn the basics of food production from seed to table, fundamental horticultural and arboricultural techniques, and the importance of environmental justice. Through the lens of diversity, equity, and inclusion, the garden will help address challenges facing Valverde residents and provide food security, tree equity, water conservation, and habitat to the local wildlife.

The Summerhill Neighborhood Development Corporation (Atlanta, GA)

The Summerhill Neighborhood Development Corporation will transform a vacant lot into a community garden in the neighborhood of Summerhill. The location is next to a highway, and the garden will help mitigate noise, beautify the area, and improve air quality by reducing pollutants. Further, the garden will provide a space for greater connection among neighbors. They want the garden to provide a space where people can come together and create a sense of community pride.

Tucson Audubon Society (Tucson, AZ)

To address historic inequities and advance a vision of community health and wellness for South Tucson residents, the Tucson Audubon Society proposes to build upon our existing partnerships with Luna y Sol Cafe and Barrio Restoration to create a Community Habitat Hub. The garden will provide opportunities to experience nature, build community, and enhance habitat for people, feathered friends, and other wildlife in urban areas.

Western Pennsylvania Conservancy (Pittsburgh, PA)

As part of its conservation mission, the Western Pennsylvania Conservancy’s Community Greening program plants and maintains more than 130 community flower gardens in 20 Western and Central Pennsylvania counties. All of these gardens are located on publicly accessible land and are planted and maintained with community partners and volunteers. In partnership with Amazing Grace Inside Outreach, they will create a native pollinator garden where the vacant lot is located to beautify the neighborhood and create pride and investment in the community.