The Giving Garden

Volunteering at Wagner Farm Arboretum provides a rewarding experience where help is ALWAYS appreciated. There is a task for all levels of experience and capability.  

Project Description

Click HERE for the WFA Giving Garden brochure or contact ggp@wfafnj.org.

Bernadette DeLaurie is the WFA Giving Garden Director. The Giving Garden is a service and educational program operated entirely by volunteers through the Wagner Farm Arboretum, a non-profit organization.

The purpose of the Giving Garden is to plant, care for, harvest and deliver fresh, organic produce meant to feed families, individuals, and elderly who do not have the resources to acquire a nutritional, healthy and fresh meal. Produce is delivered to, and then distributed through agencies such as Feeding Hands of Somerset County, Star Fish, Interfaith Food Pantry and soup kitchens.  

There is a small “Children’s Giving Garden” located within the overall Giving Garden and local scout troops have been invited to work in this area along with a local elementary school Environment Club. Contact ggp@wfafnj.org if you have a scout troop that is interested in participating.

The GGP also helps at the Rutgers Experimental Station in Pittstown, harvesting fresh produce to deliver to the Food Banks.

Volunteering

The vegetable beds are maintained throughout the growing season by volunteers who perform specific tasks under the direction of seasoned lead gardeners. The Giving Garden invites manageable-sized groups from corporations, community service organizations, nearby high schools or members of the public to spend a few hours volunteering in the garden for their “Volunteer Day” or corporate “Give Back” day. To accomodate personal schedules, we offer several different ways you can volunteer in the Wagner Farm Arboretum’s Giving Garden:

1. New process for Saturday morning volunteers: The Giving Garden has Saturday morning volunteering sessions for PRE-REGISTERED individuals, groups or couples wishing to help out in our garden. Each Saturday beginning April 13th, WEATHER PERMITTING, from 9 am until 12 noon, pre-registered volunteers can come and work together on tasks that are time-of-year dependent, such as preparing beds, planting crops or harvesting. These sessions are for individuals as opposed to large groups - students who need volunteer hour requirements for HS or anyone looking to do something different and meaningful with their free time. Work assignments are made that day. Pre-register by emailing ggp@wfafnj.org before the Saturday you wish to work and submit your name, email address, phone number and the number in your party, including children and their ages. Children must be 12 years of age or older and be supervised by you. 

2. Smaller groups, such as scout troops, wishing to volunteer are encouraged to schedule their own event(s) in advance with the Giving Garden Director. You can do this whenever it fits into YOUR schedule and our GG managers can accomodate you...once a week, once a month, once a year. Come on the day you scheduled and stay as long as you want.

3. Adopt-A-Plot in the GG. As an adopter, it would be your responsibility to plant and maintain an assigned plot from May until late September. Your time commitment would be about 2-3 hours per week. We do have student and community volunteers who come on Saturdays and can help out in your plot as needed.  We also have 4 managers who will support your efforts and take over if you are away or on vacation.

4. Come with a Corporate group. If you work and your company allows community service or “Give Back” days, your group can schedule a day to work in the Giving Garden. Work assignments are made on that day. 

5. Get on our list of individual volunteers. We occasionally send out email messages to those on our list of individual volunteers about a planned event, such as a “weeding party” in The Children’s Garden or a general grounds cleanup. If you wanted to be on our list of individual volunteers and specified where your interest lie, we could include you on those email messages. Contact our office at administrator@wfafnj.org to join our list or click on the VOLUNTEER tab and scroll down to complete and submit the online volunteer form.

To schedule a working visit to the Giving Garden please contact ggp@wfafnj.org or administrator@wfafnj.org. Remember to dress appropriately for the weather, wear sturdy shoes and bring your own work gloves and if needed, a sun hat.

Volunteer tasks are seasonal and include:

• preparing the beds in Spring

• planting vegetable seeds or seedlings

• weeding beds and paths

• harvesting the vegetables

• clearing the beds at the end of the season

• delivering produce to area agencies

• assisting with volunteer groups

• coordinating educational programs