East Palo Alto
Community Garden
We’re planting seeds of nourishment and community
The East Palo Alto Community Garden at 230 Demeter St offers a place for East Palo Alto community members to gain hands-on experience with urban farming. Through our workshops, volunteer garden workdays, community compost hub, and variety of resources, we supply folks with the skills and means to grow their own culturally-relevant fruits and veggies, while collectively building a more resilient community and network of local growers.
197 Participants
engaged in our
gardening workshops
42 Members
in our community
garden network
11 Rain Gardens
installed at homes residences
around East Palo Alto
*Data from 2025 Annual Report
Community Compost Hub
Our Community Compost Hub allows folks to divert their compostable food waste into gardening compost and grow nourishing fruits and vegetables!
As a Community Compost Hub member, you can bring your food scraps in the provided buckets to one of our drop-off sites. You can receive your bucket once you complete the online compost training. Buckets can be picked up at the collection sites.
Garden Workshops
Our monthly workshops provide a chance to learn everything you need to know about urban agriculture including how to grow edible gardens, managing pests, crop rotation, fruit tree pruning and grafting, and more!
Volunteer at the Garden
Join us in the garden to sharpen your planting, pruning, and composting skills while learning from our experienced community members. You’re even welcome to take some of the harvest home with you!
- East Palo Alto Community Garden Workdays
- Every Saturday from 10:00 AM to 1:00 PM
- Every Thursday from 4:00 to 6:00 PM (March to October)
- East Palo Alto Community Garden Compost Hub Collections & Integration Workdays
- Every Wednesday (November to April), 9:00 AM – 12:30 PM at the East Palo Alto Community Garden (Collections)
- Every Wednesday (April to November), 9:00 AM – 12:30 PM at the East Palo Alto Community Farmers’ Market (Collections)
- Every Wednesday, 1:45 – 3:30 PM at the East Palo Alto Community Garden (Integrations)
- Partner Site Compost Hub Collections & Integration Workdays
- Every Saturday, 9:00 AM – 12:00 PM at the San Mateo Farmers’ Market (Collections)
- Every Saturday, 1:30 – 3:30 PM at the Phoenix Garden (Integrations)
For all volunteers under Age 16, adult supervision is required.
Rain Garden Installations
Along with our partner organizations, we’re working to install and maintain rain gardens and water cistern systems for homeowners in East Palo Alto.
We hope this project will serve as a pilot of community resilience!
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“Having a space to grow some of my own food year round is important to me. It encourages me to get outside and be physically active, it allows me to choose and see what goes into growing some of the food I eat, and at the community garden, it has allowed me to connect and share in an exchange of knowledge and interest with fellow community gardeners.”
Lisa Fabiniy, former Community Garden Specialist
Resources for East Palo Alto Residents
We also offer free resources to residents of East Palo Alto to make growing food at home and in community gardens more affordable and accessible, including:
- Access to garden beds to grow fruits and veggies
- Access to our seed lending library, a free source of locally viable, organic seeds for year-round gardening
- Access to our tool lending library, where you can borrow the tools necessary to build and maintain your own garden as well as food preservation equipment for preserving your home harvests
- Connections to other network members with opportunities to share knowledge and strengthen community
- Seed and produce swaps with other gardeners in the community
- VeggieRx Vouchers for attending our workshops for you to purchase fresh fruits & vegetables at participating farmers’ markets
History of Collective Roots
The Collective Roots Gardening Program began as an independent non-profit organization called Collective Roots, founded in 2000. From its inception, Collective Roots focused on the growing, sharing, and cooking of nutritious foods as a way of improving the economic independence, health, and community connectedness of East Palo Alto.
Founders Holly Taylor, Amanda Feld, and Adam Mitchell started Collective Roots by planting school gardens at Belle Haven Elementary. The organization then expanded its reach to focus more on community and backyard gardens. In 2007, Collective Roots founded the East Palo Alto Community Farmers’ Market – the first of its kind in the city – which continues on today as a program of Fresh Approach. In 2018, Collective Roots merged with Fresh Approach in order to deepen their impacts in the community and create a more sustainable future.
As of June 2025, Fresh Approach found a new location to host the only community garden in East Palo Alto. The new site promises healthy soil, abundant sun, and plenty of room to expand. It will allow us to deepen its place-based work with expanded plots, culturally relevant workshops, and opportunities for more community members to grow.
Since operating our new garden space, we owe a special thanks to our Garden Founding Partners — the builders, designers, and neighbors who contributed materials, labor, and expertise to physically shape it. This includes Kim LeMieux (Laurel Homes, Inc), Scott Nolan (Architectural Custom Landscape), David Guthridge (Light, Aire and Space), Mike Sangalli (McMills Construction), Fred Nurisso (Broadway Mechanical-Contractors, Inc.), Juan Carlos Mendoza (Electrician & Community Gardener), Owaga Nursery, Moon Valley Nursery, and Peninsula Building Materials.
