New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill Is Making a Difference

New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill’s vegetable garden grows produce for area food banks.

If you’ve visited New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill before, you know it is a must-see New England destination. But did you know that New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill is much more than a pretty place? Staff, volunteers, donors, and members work year-round at our nonprofit organization to help improve the lives of as many people as possible by connecting them to plants. Here are a few examples…

Donating fresh produce
Each growing season, New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill’s staff and volunteers collect fresh fruit and vegetables to address food insecurity in Worcester. In 2020, with an award from the Urban Agriculture Resilience Program, a joint initiative of the American Public Gardens Association and the U.S. Botanic Garden, more than 1,000 pounds was harvested from our Vegetable Garden and donated to Worcester food pantry patrons to bring home to their families.

Increasing Access, Removing Barriers
New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill believes that access to the natural world is a basic human right. However, many in the community do not have equitable access to green space. To address this, New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill participates in the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s Card to Culture program which allows individuals with an EBT, WIC, or ConnectorCare cards admission discounts to museums across Massachusetts. New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill also partners with AARP for “AARP Tuesdays,” which extends admission to AARP members during September to experience the respite of the Garden.

WRAP participants visited our daffodil field in 2019.

Providing a Refuge for Refugees
The Worcester Refugee Assistance Project (WRAP), a network of individuals committed to assisting local refugees from Burma achieve sustainable self‐reliance through mentoring, advocacy, and material support, partners with New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill to re-connect program participants with nature in an effort to build community. Thanks to the support of Greater Worcester Community Foundation’s Community Grant, children and teens are able to cook, garden, draw, and hike together while making connections with their new home.

Celebrating the LGBTQ+ Community
To showcase its support of the diversity of its community, in 2017, New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill began its tradition of raising its Pride flag in conjunction Worcester’s annual Pride Week. In 2019, the Garden hosted its first Pride Day celebration to kick-off Worcester Pride.

Teaching Worcester second-graders
As part of the Worcester Education Development Foundation’s Culture LEAP program, New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill hosts every second-grader in the Worcester Public School System on field trips to the gardens where students and teachers are able to reinforce STEM lessons learned in the classroom. Whenever children visit the gardens, they learn a little bit more about where their food comes from, why pollinators are important, how they can become nature’s advocates, and more.

Welcoming Worcester Head Start
New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill’s partnership with Worcester Child Development Head Start Program, supported by the Hanover Insurance Group Foundation, will ensure every classroom across five sites in the city visits New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill for students to learn about plants and nature in a hands-on environment. Head Start provides comprehensive services to parents, families, and children. The program enhances the self-esteem and personal growth of all children including those with special needs while preparing every child to enter school ready to learn.

Students on a field trip to New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill.

Opening The Court: A Garden Within Reach
The Court: A Garden Within Reach opened in 2015 to offer a universally-designed space where visitors of all ages and levels of mobility could get close to plants and experience the positive benefits of time spent in nature. Journey Through Memory, which helps caregivers and people with Alzheimer’s and dementia, uses the The Court: A Garden Within Reach. And volunteers from organizations like the Seven Hills Foundation help plant the garden each spring.

Promoting Socio-Emotional Health
Starting in 2020, New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill began inviting Little Sisters and Brothers to visit the gardens for free when accompanied by their Big Brother or Big Sister. In addition, New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill has partnered with the Wonderfund, a Massachusetts nonprofit organization, to offer discounted admission to families with foster children.

Creating an Inclusive Place for a Diverse Community
Since 2019, New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill’s Staff and Board Inclusion, Diversity, Equity, and Accessibility Committees provide thought leadership and training on how the Garden can better serve all of its visitors, staff, volunteers, and board. In 2020, the Community Advisory Committee was also launched, bringing together diverse voices of the community to challenge New England Botanic Garden at Tower Hill to build a truly equitable Garden. Together, the three committees work and learn together to create a space where all can work, learn, and play. Recent staff trainings coordinated by the Staff IDEA Committee have been made possible by the Massachusetts Cultural Council’s Universal Participation Initiative and Greater Worcester Community Foundation’s Mini-Grant program.