When it comes to gardening, Jose German-Gomez is a master of doing more with less. The eight community gardens he runs in Montclair, Passaic, Kinnelon, Paterson and East Orange are small—one in a Montclair church parking lot takes up just six parking spots—but yield many hundreds of pounds of produce for the food insecure.
Providing fresh, healthy food locally and sustainably is just one benefit of community gardens, says the retired accountant, who runs the Northeast Earth Coalition (NEEC), an urban-farming and environmental advocacy group in the tri-state area. “Community gardening promotes sustainability, better nutrition in areas with few grocery stores, exercise, and social connections,” he says.
His community garden in Passaic, for example, is planted by immigrant women, some of whom are victims of domestic violence. “We integrate their ancient farming techniques,” he says. “Gardening is part of their therapy.”
While conventional farming can be harmful to the environment, German-Gomez’s organic methods actually improve the ecosystem. In place of fertilizer, he and his volunteers use compost tea—a nutrient-rich brew made from food scraps dropped off by members of the community. The soil, in raised beds atop asphalt parking lots, is also regenerated naturally by nitrogen-rich beans sown in the spring. Planting is synergistic, with beans, corn and squash growing cheek by jowl to provide shade and nutrients for one other. Despite the tight quarters, the gardens’ productivity is astounding. Last year, Montclair’s tiny Pine Street garden supplied the local soup kitchen, Toni’s Kitchen, with more than 1,450 pounds of fresh produce.
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The extent of German-Gomez’s environmental advocacy is equally remarkable. As a champion of pollinators, whose numbers are dwindling rapidly, and the native plants they depend on, he has worked with 250 Montclair residents, schools and houses of worship for the last 20 years to transform their yards into gardens with native species. This led to the town’s 2008 certification by the National Wildlife Federation as a “community wildlife habitat,” the first in the state, and as a pollinator pathway in 2020. As a result of his efforts to protect pollinators, Montclair was declared a Monarch City in 2022; the same year, the town passed the Jose German-Gomez Native Species Act, requiring that town property be planted with 70 percent native vegetation.
With the help of the NEEC’s Dave Wasmuth, German-Gomez spearheaded the replacement of invasive species in part of Essex County’s Brookdale Park with native plants and lobbied the Montclair town council to institute a law banning gas-powered leaf blowers; it became the second town in the state to do so.
Fighting food insecurity is another passion. He launched and runs the state’s Little Free Pantry program and manages gardens at several Montclair schools that provide food to soup kitchens.
One formidable obstacle to his efforts is financing. The all-volunteer coalition receives no funding, and the two grants it received last year were just discontinued. “We are struggling,” German-Gomez says. Visit neearth.org to donate.
[RELATED: New Jersey Food Banks and Nonprofits That Help Residents Facing Hunger]
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