Press Release

ScottsMiracle-Gro and USCM Announce $160,000 in Grants to Cities at Mayors’ 84th Winter Meeting

Washington, DC – The United States Conference of Mayors (USCM) and The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company today announced the winners of grants totaling $160,000 in value, through GRO1000, the landmark garden and green space development grant program. The 2016 GRO1000 Showcase Grant Winners are:

Atlanta, GA: Atlanta Urban Agriculture Expansion Project (Mayor Kasim Reed)
New York, NY: Pleasant Village Community Garden (Mayor Bill de Blasio)
Providence, RI: General Street Park Community Garden (Mayor Jorge O. Elorza)
St. Louis, MO: St. Louis Riverfront Butterfly Byway Southern Monarch Habitat Area (Mayor Francis G. Slay)

“Through our focus on supporting gardens and green spaces in America’s cities, this grant can touch so many aspects of a community, “said Tom Cochran, USCM CEO and Executive Director. “From improving their environment to encouraging physical activity, from enhancing nutrition to encouraging locally grown produce, the GRO1000 initiative is a partnership whose investments bear fruit many times over – both figuratively and literally.”

The winning cities, announced at the Mayors’ 84th Winter Meeting in Washington, DC, were chosen by a panel of former mayors and national garden experts. GRO1000 grant winners each receive a total of $40,000 in monetary support and in-kind donations, to develop gardens and green spaces that will help transform their communities.

“We believe that our cities are made better when they have more gardens and greenspaces,” said Jim Hagedorn, ScottsMiracle-Gro Chairman and CEO. “We’re proud to continue our innovative partnership with the U.S. Conference of Mayors to support local programs that are improving the lives of people in communities across the nation through gardening.”

The GRO1000 program is part of ScottsMiracle-Gro’s commitment to support the creation of more than 1,000 community gardens and green spaces in the U.S., Canada and Europe by 2018, in conjunction with its 150th anniversary. To that end, more than 680 community projects have received GRO1000 funding. For more information, visit www.GRO1000.com and follow ScottsMiracle-Gro on Twitter at twitter.com/Scotts_MGro.

Descriptions of the winning projects appear below.

• The Atlanta Urban Agriculture Expansion Project will connect and expand three successful, but under-resourced, urban agriculture programs across Atlanta, including the city’s ten successful fire stations vegetable gardens, which provide fire fighters across the city with fresh, naturally grown vegetables and herbs as a healthy supplement for their fire station meals, and serve as teaching and demonstration gardens for the surrounding communities. The grant will also benefit urban agriculture projects in Atlanta’s historic Vine City neighborhood and within the Atlanta University Center’s four historically black colleges and universities.

• The Pleasant Village Community Garden plays a vital role in providing healthy, affordable produce for residents in the New York City neighborhood of East Harlem, where about two thirds of food stores are bodegas, which typically offer less healthy fresh foods than larger grocery stores, 38% of residents live below the poverty line, and almost two-thirds of adults are overweight or obese. The garden effectively functions as a non-profit co-operative, providing food for more than 200 community residents. In addition to the edible garden, the property has a chicken coop, which provides the community eggs. The surplus eggs are sold and the revenue poured back into maintaining the garden.

• Providence’s General Street Park is a neighborhood park completely surrounded by a low-income housing complex, many of which are occupied by families. Despite the large numbers of youth in the neighborhood, the connection to city-managed facilities, a free federal summer meals program, and other park amenities, the park has historically been underutilized. This project aims to transform General Street Park into a vibrant, creative and safe place for residents and youth, through the installation of a fruit tree grove, which will serve as a natural play/hiding/discovery space for youth as well as a healthy food access and environmental education opportunity. Edible garden planters will support nutrition literacy and food access, and a pollinator garden will reinforce recent garden installations and the fruit tree grove.

• The St. Louis Riverfront Butterfly Byway will span approximately 31 acres of monarch butterfly habitat along the northern portion of the 19-mile riverfront and consist of native plants that will also attract pollinators and serve as urban prairie patches for other species. GRO1000 grant funds will establish a prominent southern terminus for the byway. The proposed southern monarch garden areas will be located within close proximity to two city parks, and the anticipated result will be two large monarch/pollinator gardens that will also provide additional acreage of monarch habitat and serve as an extension of the St. Louis Riverfront Butterfly Byway pollinator pathway.

About ScottsMiracle-Gro
With approximately $3 billion in worldwide sales, The Scotts Miracle-Gro Company is the world's largest marketer of branded consumer products for lawn and garden care. The Company's brands are the most recognized in the industry. In the U.S., the Company's Scotts®, Miracle-Gro® and Ortho® brands are market-leading in their categories, as is the consumer Roundup® brand, which is marketed in North America and most of Europe exclusively by Scotts and owned by Monsanto. In the U.S., we operate Scotts LawnService®, the second largest residential lawn care service business.  In Europe, the Company's brands include Weedol®, Pathclear®, Evergreen®, Levington®, Miracle-Gro®, KB®, Fertiligène® and Substral®.  In 2015, the Company ranked on Forbes 100 Most Reputable Companies in America. For additional information, visit us at www.scottsmiraclegro.com.

About The United States Conference of Mayors
The United States Conference of Mayors is the official nonpartisan organization of cities with populations of 30,000 or more. There are more than 1,200 such cities in the country today, and each city is represented in the Conference by its chief elected official, the mayor. Find us at usmayors.org, on facebook.com/usmayors, or follow us on Twitter at twitter.com/usmayors.

Contact:
Elena Temple-Webb
etemple@usmayors.org, 202-286-1100

Molly Jennings
Molly.Jennings@Scotts.com, 561-350-5734