This is part four of our Garden Get Down Honoree Series. We are excited to be honoring some of our community’s most dedicated growers and fresh food champions at the Garden Get Down on September 22.
We’re excited to continue our 2026 Garden Get Down Awardees Series by featuring our Resilient Community Growers awardee: BTC Center’s Planted in Homewood Community Garden. This is one of a series of spotlights leading up to Grow Pittsburgh’s Garden Get Down, where we’ll celebrate some of our community’s most dedicated growers and fresh food champions.
BTC Center has been part of the Homewood community for decades, and in recent years, the organization has made food access a central part of its work. With limited grocery options and many residents facing transportation barriers, BTC Center saw an opportunity to turn an empty lot into a source of fresh food, connection, and community pride. Working alongside community members and partners, they transformed the space into a garden designed to grow food for their food pantry and neighbors.
Volunteers regularly gather to plant, weed, harvest, and care for the garden, with produce distributed through the food pantry and additional community distribution days throughout the growing season.
For LaVerne Hunt, who helps lead the garden, one of the keys to its success has been simply showing up. The garden team is there most Tuesdays throughout the growing season, creating a consistent presence that neighbors have come to recognize and participate in. “It’s for the community,” she shared. “We want to be a reliable source of vegetables and community.”
In recent years, people would come to the area around the garden to deal and use drugs, leaving behind needles, broken glass, and other hazards. Unfortunately, discarded needles made the garden an unsafe environment. Last year, BTCC took steps to reinvigorate the garden. BTCC’s board members and project leaders partnered with key neighbors who helped solidify support from all neighbors. Local law enforcement was successfully solicited to monitor the garden, and BTC Center received a grant from Grow Pittsburgh for needed garden repairs and enhancements. BTCC did not discontinue the garden, but combined leadership and partnerships with community engagement to move the garden forward.
BTC Center Board Chair Jane Nicholson shared, “We revitalized the garden, and it’s been a tremendous step forward.”
This year, that revitalization has meant more volunteers, more consistent gardening days, and a renewed commitment to growing food for the community. “It is something that we want everyone to know: we are a reliable source of vegetables as well as community,” LaVerne said. “The space is for the community.”
That consistency is helping rebuild connections, too. One neighbor who lives across the alley had been watching the garden for years and told the BTC Center team he was “just waiting to see if we were going to disappear.” Instead, he became an advocate for the space, helping repair the garden’s fence. More recently, he offered to contribute vegetables from his own garden to BTC Center’s food distribution days.
Another neighbor, who is 100 years old and a lifelong gardener, asked if she could help in the garden. She brought her son to help, participated in a cleanup day, and later took plants home so she could continue growing. “She was so happy just being in the garden, being able to do it,” the team shared. “That was really inspirational for us.”
The garden is also growing more food than ever for community distribution. This year, the team has focused on growing larger quantities of the crops they know the community wants, including greens, peppers, green beans, okra, turnips, Swiss chard, eggplant, and more. One bed alone holds around 40 eggplants, producing enough to share dozens at a time.
BTC Center is grateful for its partnership with Grow Pittsburgh and other local organizations such as Tree PGH and the Carpenter’s Union, which have also helped to revitalize the garden.
“We’ve been able to ask for help, and it is remarkable how many people have said yes. I think when that happens, then our goals and dreams become real,” the BTC team shared.
Janet Ward, BTC Center Vice Chair and Treasurer, who also helps lead the garden, states that “turning a small plot of land into a self-sustaining experience for community health, mental well-being, and civic pride is the result of our partnerships”.
Please join us at this year’s Garden Get Down on September 22 to honor the BTC Center Community Garden for their resilience, dedication, and commitment to growing fresh food and community in Homewood. We’re proud to celebrate the garden’s revitalization and the many people who continue to show up, lend a hand, and help grow and share fresh produce.
