Friends of Kimbell

We wanted to share a brief rundown of our community canvassing event on Saturday, December 6th (see photos on our Instagram @friendsofkimbell):

• We mobilized 10 volunteers to knock on doors and spread the news of our future garden
• We visited 5 neighborhoods: Western Addition, Japantown, Alamo Square, NoPa, and Lower Pacific Heights
• We spoke with dozens of neighbors and distributed custom postcards

It was wonderful to meet you all face to face. We met with community members who are:

• Members of the PTO at their local elementary school
• Deeply involved with their church and community center
• Eager to start growing tomatoes :)

Interactions like these were a reminder of why we’re building this community garden. Many of us are looking for “third places,” or informal spaces for gathering, socializing, and creating a sense of belonging. Community gardens provide all of this, while also improving our local environment and educating visitors about the food system.

If you’d like to volunteer at a future canvassing event, help out with fundraising, or contribute your resources in another way, please send us an email @friendsofkimbell@gmail.com. We’d be thrilled to hear from you.

We’re excited to share the latest progress on the Kimbell Community Garden project! During our public meeting on August 23, we revealed that the community overwhelmingly voted for Concept 2.0 as the direction for our new garden design. With this feedback, we reviewed three new updated concept designs.

If you missed the meeting, you can still view the concept designs below and provide additional feedback in the embedded form until September 13.

Updates to the Concept Designs

• Concept 2.1 includes a larger gathering space under the stone pine as well as an ADA accessible picnic table
• Concept 2.2 adds a garden entry plaza facing the lawn and playground
• Concept 2.3 adds more community space inside the fence as a visual extension of the garden entry plaza
• Concept 2.1 leans more towards a higher number of individual plots vs Concept 2.3 which leans more towards a larger presence of shared space

We reviewed two concept designs for the garden on July 26th. If you were unable to attend this public meeting, you can still view the proposals below and provide feedback in the embedded form until August 16.

We’ll incorporate comments and review updated designs at our next public meeting:
August 23rd, 10:00am at Hamilton Rec Center, 1900 Geary Blvd. All are invited.

We value your input! Please take a moment to review these concept designs and share your thoughts through our feedback form below. Your feedback will help us create a garden that truly serves our community’s needs and preferences.

Key Features of a Community Garden

• Individual plot space (aiming for around 50)
• Common Space – Fruit trees, herb garden, pollinator gardens, etc.
• Gathering Space – Picnic tables, potting tables, benches, etc.
• Tool shed
• Water access
• Greenwaste management
• Fencing with two gates

Design Process – Where are we?

We are very early in the design process. Concept designs explore the following:

• Site Program – What do we want here?
• Program Ratios – How much of each element do we want? Which ones are most important?
• Programmatic Relationships – How do the program elements relate to each other?
• General Site layout – How are elements arranged spatially?

We have lots of design left to go! Design will continue to be informed by:

• Site Survey
• Constructability
• Budget
• Utility Coordination
• Arborist Review
• Code Requirements
• Permit Review and more!

Concept Designs

Both of the two concept plans are similar in many ways:

• Garden plots are focused on the east side of the site, to best take advantage of sun exposure
• Vehicle gate is located close to truck access on the south side of the site
• Improvements are minimal underneath the canopies of the existing trees, to ensure roots are not impacted. A gathering located under the canopies.
• Each plan has a moderate level of garden plots vs. shared garden space

We met on Sunday, May 4 at 10am at the Hamilton Recreation Center (1900 Geary Blvd) to discuss the amazing progress from our action teams.

The meeting focused on the following agenda items:

• Fiscal Sponsor Agreement overview — Great news: we signed a Fiscal Sponsor Agreement with Greening Projects!
• Website & fundraising launch
• Group grounding / values exercise, and
• Breakout sessions for Team-specific tasks (Fundraising, Community Engagement, and Fiscal Management).

Also, if you haven’t yet joined us on Discord, please reach out to get an invite @friendsofkimbell@gmail.com. Most of our project discussions are happening there.

What a day! We had an energizing gathering with nearly 50 neighbors for our first All Hands meeting on Saturday, March 22nd @Hamilton Rec Center for the Friends of Kimbell Community Garden!

At this meeting, we imagined the future of our community garden:

• community gathering space,
• 50+ allotments,
• shared garden areas,
• fruit trees,
• herbs,
• pollinator-friendly plants,
• ADA accessibility,
• and much more.

We received guidance from SF Rec & Parks staff on key steps we should expect. We heard from the Executive Director of Greening Projects, who will serve as our project fiscal sponsor. And perhaps most importantly, we launched the Friends of Kimbell Community Garden with four action-oriented Teams:

• Fiscal Management
• In-Kind Donations
• Cash Fundraising
• Community Engagement

If you weren’t able to join us at today’s meeting, you can still get involved. Join our Mailing List below! We look forward to meeting you.