EMERGING PARKS

30 Food Forests by 2030

BFFC is building a permanent corridor of green space with equity and neighborhood leadership at the center. Together, we plan to break ground on 30 food forest parks by 2030, endowing future generations with critical green infrastructure for climate and community resilience.

To explore existing parks that are open to public, please visit our Parks directory webpage.

Phase 1: Community Visioning

  • 1. Grassroots Organizing

    Individuals and groups interested in developing a City-owned lot engage with neighbors, neighborhood associations, and other community stakeholders. BFFC assists or collaborates in this effort.

  • 2. Community Visioning Sessions

    This is an opportunity for individuals and groups interested in developing a food forest park in their neighborhood to create a shared vision for the potential future of the site. This stage includes conversation, drawings, surveys, and/or creative online sessions. This period creates an initial vision for the site that can be developed into a concept plan.

  • 3. City of Boston Community Meeting

    The City of Boston will schedule a public community meeting inviting all abutters within a 300+ ft radius of the parcel(s) to provide feedback on the future use of a site.

Phase 2: City Process & Co-Design

  • 4. RFP Release

    A request for proposals (RFP) by the City of Boston is an open request for bids to complete a new project. RFP’s are released by agencies like the Mayor’s Office of Housing or the Planning Department. 

  • 5. Community Design

    BFFC leads a series of community design sessions, introducing design exercises with neighbors using visual preferences and our food forest design guide. Community members decide on wants and needs for their food forest park during this stage. 

  • 6. Developer Selected

    City votes and selects the developer. The selectee receives a tentative status for one year to prepare financing, construction design & build, legal & land transfer paperwork.

  • 7. Community Design Completion

    A community-developed concept plan is revised by designers into a final design.   Construction documents for the food forest park are created and landscape contractors are selected.

Phase 3: Construction & Grand Opening

  • 8. Construction

    Construction begins. BFFC oversees construction and reports on progress to all partners. The community is invited to a planting day towards the end of construction.

  • 9. Grand Opening

    A special celebration to mark the opening of a new food forest park. This is held in collaboration with all the parties involved during the development process, as well as the wider community.

  • 10. Open to Public

    Once a park is open to the public, a whole new phase of work begins. The park is now stewarded by community, with programming and maintenance support from BFFC.

Neighborhoods Where We’re Building

Interested in exploring an emerging food forest project in your neighborhood? Explore the drop-down menus below to learn more about where BFFC is working across Boston.

With emerging parks come emerging stewardship teams, and we welcome you to bring your community organizing skills, your gardening enthusiasm, and your unique perspectives to these budding teams.

To get in touch, contact Mark Araujo at mark@bostonfoodforest.org or at 617-567-0700.

Want a Food Forest in Your Neighborhood?

If you have a vacant parcel of land in your Boston neighborhood and want to explore the possibility of transforming it into a public, community-owned food forest park, we’d love to hear from you.

Similarly, if you’d like to get involved in one of the emerging projects listed above, please get in touch!

Fill out the form below or email Mark Araujo, BFFC’s Community Engagement Manager at mark@bostonfoodforest.org.

Form

To meet some of the partners who make these projects possible, visit our Partners Page.

To explore parks that are already open to the public and being stewarded by community, visit our Parks Page.