Blog

Whole Foods Com­mu­ni­ty Giv­ing Day 11⁄2

Nov 1, 2016 3:11 pm

To cel­e­brate its 5% Com­mu­ni­ty Giv­ing Day on Novem­ber 2, Whole Foods is join­ing forces with the Friends of Gov­er­nors Island and three oth­er neigh­bor­hood parks: Friends of Hud­son Riv­er Park, Brook­lyn Bridge Park Con­ser­van­cy and Mar­cus Gar­vey Park. These orga­ni­za­tions will share 5% of the day’s col­lec­tive net sales from all 10 Whole Foods stores in Man­hat­tan and Brook­lyn. Gov­er­nors Island’s share of fund­ing will be used to sup­port the devel­op­ment of our ​“Green Zone.”

Past 5% Days have raised more than $100,000 for part­ner­ing organizations. 

What’s a green zone and why do we need one? 

Gov­er­nors Island is a ver­dant oasis and it’s grow­ing! In 2016, we opened the newest sec­tion of award-win­ning park, 40 acres of rolling hills and for­est that will reach peak matu­ri­ty in 2100. Designed to antic­i­pate cli­mate changes and sea lev­el rise for the next hun­dred years, the new park serves as a mod­el for sus­tain­able and resilient design. 

Keep­ing our land­scapes in world-class con­di­tion while apply­ing the high­est envi­ron­men­tal stan­dards requires both a robust work­force and exten­sive back-of-house capac­i­ty. Each year, thou­sands of vol­un­teers pro­vide the human pow­er we need to care for the 172-acre Island. Our new ​“Green Zone” will increase their capac­i­ty and enable us to keep the Island’s land­scapes healthy and sus­tain­able. An out­door com­plex, vol­un­teer hub and edu­ca­tion­al resource, the ​“Green Zone” unites exist­ing Island-wide envi­ron­men­tal ini­tia­tives such as urban farm­ing and com­post­ing togeth­er with hor­ti­cul­tur­al stewardship. 

The ​“Green Zone” is essen­tial to advanc­ing our goal to cre­ate a closed-loop organ­ic cycle by return­ing waste to the land­scape, bring­ing us clos­er to being a ​“Zero Waste Island.” Cen­tral­ly locat­ed near Liggett Ter­race and the Play Area, the Zone is envi­sioned to include:

  • A hor­ti­cul­tur­al lab and ​“kitchen” for cre­at­ing liq­uid bio­log­i­cal amend­ments and com­post tea
  • A gar­den­ing oper­a­tions and train­ing center
  • Plant prop­a­ga­tion nurseries 
  • Soil blend­ing test beds
  • Sapling boot­camps to grow stronger new trees
  • The vol­un­teer hub and tool storage
  • A new pol­li­na­tor gar­den to attract more but­ter­flies, bees and oth­er pol­li­nat­ing insects to the Island

The zone forms a crit­i­cal link between these exist­ing Island pro­grams locat­ed on the Urban Farm:

  • The Teach­ing Gar­den, run by GrowNYC
  • The Com­post Learn­ing Cen­ter and organ­ic waste recy­cling, run by the NYC Com­post Project and host­ed by Earth Mat­ter
  • Shell Recy­cling Cen­ter, run by Earth Mat­ter and Bil­lion Oys­ter Project

Come out on Wednes­day, Novem­ber 2, to sup­port Gov­er­nors Island and help us build our Green Zone! While every Whole Foods in NYC and Brook­lyn is par­tic­i­pat­ing, Gov­er­nors Island staff will be greet­ing shop­pers at the Bow­ery and Union Square stores from 11am-9pm, so stop by and say hi! 15 lucky shop­pers will win free a Gov­er­nors Island tote bag.

Read the Whole Foods press release here.

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