Forest Park Community Garden pledges to serve the community in the following ways:

• Food Pantry Donations- Each year, no fewer than three of our garden beds will be reserved for growing fresh produce for the hungry. Our volunteers will plant, tend, and harvest fresh organic produce which will be donated to the Forest Park Food Pantry.  In 2009 our volunteers tended 3 raised garden plots which produced four batches of summer and fall crops that were donated to West Suburban PADS, a homeless services organization in Maywood,  and Fraternite Notre Dame Soup Kitchen in Chicago’s Austin neighborhood.
• Free Herb and Cutting Flower Garden- A new feature of our garden in 2010 are two free “help yourself” culinary herb and cutting flower gardens.  Anyone is invited to harvest from these beds at any time during the year.  The flower and herb plants in these beds will be donated by our volunteers or area business.  Plants will be labeled with instructions on how to harvest and cooking instructions.
• Forest Park School Garden Program (goal for Fall 2010 implementation)- We would like offer our gardening knowledge, skills, and resources to the Forest Park schools by building garden plots at every school.   We will help plan, build, plant, and maintain the gardens as well as assist educators develop interactive gardening activities and curriculum for the students.
• Community Garden Tool Lending Library (future goal)- We would like to offer a tool lending library which would allow members of the community to check out at no charge garden tools to use at their homes or in the community garden.
• Free Educational Lectures- Please click on our “Education” tab for more information about our free gardening lectures.
• Beautification – In 2009 we painted the swing, benches and garbage cans in the community garden park.  We also installed several flower gardens which are visible to the cars and pedestrians traveling on Harlem Avenue.  In the future, we will continue to make improvements to the park space that the entire community can enjoy.