Our Story

In 2016, the Bronxville Giving Garden was first proposed by Bronxville resident Dave Phillips, a musician and amateur vegetable gardener who suggested to Mayor Mary Marvin that the Village might help to address food insecurity in our area by starting a community garden that would raise and donate vegetables. 

Dave offered to lead the project as its farmer. The mayor liked the idea and brought in Mary Liz Mulligan, then chair of the Bronxville Green Committee, to help run the project. In due course, the Village Trustees passed a resolution indicating that part of the insurance money from the loss of the Girl Scout Cabin in Maltby Park, which had burned to the ground, would go toward the creation of what would be called the Bronxville Giving Garden. Those funds along with a generous donation from the Bronxville Rotary Club allowed the project to proceed. Since then, generous private donations and occasional grants from the Community Fund have kept the garden going. 

Phase I of construction was completed September 2016, at Maltby Park. Middle school children worked in shifts to construct the original eight raised beds, the backbone of the garden. But it soon became clear that securing a water source in that location would drain the modest budget and so the garden was moved to its current site, on Village Hall property on the corner of Pondfield Road and Gramatan Avenue.

Phase II was completed in April 2017, when Dave Philips and his friends reconstructed the original eight raised beds and added three more. A drip irrigation system was installed, and a fence was erected to keep out hungry critters. Dave and other volunteers welcomed visitors to the garden for simple educational programs—local nursery school children, kids from the Dayspring Community Group in Yonkers, and students from the Bronxville School. 

In 2020, the Bronxville Giving Garden won Second Place in State Senator Shelley B. Mayer’s Garden Contest!

During Covid, although the garden was closed to visitors, Dave and a couple of additional farmers kept the garden growing. In 2022 they rebuilt most of the raised beds and reconfigured their layout. That year, as well, Mary Liz decided to step down and Sue Brownie took over as director.

The 2023 growing season marks the seventh year in which the Bronxville Giving Garden, still farmed by Dave Philips, has been raising and donating vegetables for local food banks. All are welcome to visit the garden, but we ask that you respect our mission to give 100% of the vegetables we grow to local food pantries.

Our Sponsors & Supporters

The Village of Bronxville 

Rotary Club of Bronxville 

The Community Fund of Bronxville, Eastchester and Tuckahoe

Residents of Bronxville and Surrounding Communities 

Rain Natural Skincare, Hilltop Hanover Farm, Hudson Valley Seed Co., High Mowing Organic Seeds, Keeley Stone Hill River Farms, Johnny's Selected Seeds, Pelham Lumber and Drip Depot