Friends of Kimbell

Saturday, May 2 and May 9, 2026

During neighborhood meetings hosted at the KOHO Creative Hub and the African American Art & Culture Complex, we welcomed dozens of new and returning volunteers and community members. We shared results from our recent topographic survey and arborist tree assessment (paid for by our Community Challenge Grant funds). With these professional reviews completed, we now have detailed information on the following:

• Location of relevant utilities (water lines, electric assets)
• Height and slope of the ground on the site
• Health and structural integrity of mature trees on the site

Informed by prior feedback from neighbors and these new independent professional assessments, we proposed a new garden concept design.

Some key differences from prior designs include:

• Increased number of fruit trees from 5 to 10
• Increased number of garden plots from 44 to 48
• Expanded shared garden space from 1,000 sq ft to approximately 1,300 sq ft
• Shifted the vehicle gate to an optimal truck access point
• Repositioned the fenceline to avoid disturbing mature Olive tree
• Adjusted the layout of the ADA accessible pathway to accommodate maintenance access to the mature Date Palm tree
• 2 structurally poor Italian Stone Pine trees are recommended for removal

NEXT UP: Join us for our second On-Site Volunteer Workday on June 13—see our Events page to RSVP

We have big news: Friends of Kimbell Community Garden has been awarded an $80,000 Community Challenge Grant from the City & County of San Francisco! This is a highly competitive grant — only 22% of proposals were funded — and we are incredibly proud of our team for making it happen.

The grant will fund critical early-stage work including a site survey, soil testing, brush cleanup, and community engagement activities to move our garden closer to reality. Watch the news clips below!

One more reason to celebrate: Thanks to your generous donations and this grant, we’ve now raised 99% of our $100,000 Seedling Phase goal! As we move into the next phase, we invite you to donate and help us reach our Deep Roots milestone. Every contribution counts.

This is only possible because of the incredible support from our community. Thank you!

• NEXT UP: Design Reveal community meetings in early May—see our Events page to RSVP.

What an incredible turnout for our first-ever on-site workday!

We had 40 amazing volunteers show up to help us prepare the garden site for growth. In just 2 hours of work, our volunteers:

• Cleared the fence line of debris and underbrush to define our borders.
• Removed trash and weeds along the perimeter.
• Beautified 150+ linear feet with sheet mulch, instantly transforming the site.

The energy was fantastic, and it was wonderful to see so many neighbors working together for our shared community space. A special thank you to everyone who helped us reach our volunteer goal for this first major groundwork day.

Check out the photos on our Instagram (@friendsofkimbell)! We’re already looking forward to our next workday—stay tuned for details!

• NEXT UP: Design Reveal community meetings in early May—see our Events page to RSVP.

With 350 flyers posted and distributed across surrounding neighborhoods, our Kimbell Street Team ensured the whole community heard about our first on-site workday. Here is how our small but mighty team made it happen:

• 7 volunteers dedicated their time to flyering multiple neighborhoods surrounding Kimbell Park.
• 350 total flyers were posted or distributed throughout the community.
• Targeted Neighborhoods: Deep coverage in the Fillmore, Japantown, and the Western Addition.
• Accessible Outreach: We posted bilingual flyers in Japantown to expand our outreach.

A huge thank you to our Street Team members for “painting the town” and helping us grow our volunteer base. Your efforts were instrumental in the incredible turnout we saw for our March 21st workday!

Direct conversations are the most effective way to engage with our neighbors, and our latest canvassing event was no exception. Here’s a summary of what our team accomplished:

• 6 volunteers spent 2 hours knocking on doors to share the vision for the Kimbell Community Garden.
• 100+ doors visited, sparking dozens of great conversations about the future of our garden site.
• 150+ postcards were delivered to community members, providing essential information on how to support and donate.

It was heartening to hear so much enthusiasm for the garden. Every conversation helps us move closer to our fundraising goals and ensures the community has a voice in the project’s development.

If you’d like to join us for future canvassing, please send an email to friendsofkimbell@gmail.com.

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.