GrowNYC’s tents followed the Roosevelt Island’s Farmers Market around for years, but it’s over now. You might see one last appearance before city budget cuts gut the composting program. A Sanitation Department spokesman said GrowNYC’s collections attract only “the truest of true believers.” Is that true?
by David Stone
The Roosevelt Island Daily News
UPDATE, December 14th, 2023: A report in the Gothamist says that an anonymous donor gifted GrowNYC with enough money to keep them going until June. That’s when the next New York City budget kicks in. It’s still perilous, and the donation does do enough to save some other, related organizations.
End of Update.
Needless to say, there’s more to the GrowNYC story than just some budget cuts and a move toward alternatives.
Of immediate impact, over 50 employees will be laid off within the next week – just before Christmas. And compost from GrowNYC and similar organizations distribute useful compost as fertilizer to over 200 community groups.
That will also be lost. According to an article in The Gothamist, the layoffs also end training for community gardens in low-income neighborhoods. Those gardens provide fresh produce for residents in housing projects and elsewhere.
GrowNYC and Roosevelt Island
The city says that new smart composting bins now being set up around the five boroughs will fill in for GrowNYC and others. But distribution of those bins has already been delayed by earlier budget cuts.
Composting advocates believe that the Adams administration is undermining its own goals for environmental change. The Sanitation Department’s terse answers do little to belie that fear.
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We should continue this and set an example for our city!