Buffalo Freedom Gardens, Inc. is a nonprofit organization that work with B.I.P.O.C. communities to support food security, affect climate change, and encourage positive community health.

We aim to educate, stabilize, and enrich the communities where our gardens are located.

Buffalo Freedom Gardens was started in 2020 by the late Gail V. Wells as a rapid, community-led project to address access to nutritious, fresh food inspite of the dual threats of systemic racism and the COVID19 pandemic in Black, Indigneous, and People of Color (BIPOC), and statistically impoverished communities.

Our programs and projects:

Freedom Gardeners: households in statistically impoverished zip codes of Buffalo apply to receive a Garden starter kit, to begin growing their own food at home. Families and individuals are provided with a raised bed/standing bed or "grow kit on wheels," organic soil, organic seedlings, seeds, and tools. Participants have access to experienced gardeners and free classes.

150 Households have been served thus far!

2. The Gail V. Wells Freedom Food Forest project

The Food Forest at JFK Park broke ground in April 2023 at JFK park at the corners of Pine and Clinton Sts on the eastside of Buffalo. This hybrid food forest, in which various edible plants and trees are grown symbiotically supporting each other just as in a natural forest with general human maintenance.

BFG is now the proud stewards of the adopted greenspace around the tennis courts! 30+ fruit trees, berry bushes, medicinal and culinary herbs, pollinator plants, etc are planted thus far!

Now we have to respond to the added trauma following the mass shooting at TOPS on Jefferson by a white supremacist terrorist on May 14th. This hateful act took 10 lives from our beloved community and shattered many more. TOPS on Jefferson was the only full-service supermarket serving our predominantly Black community on the east side. We have been living under food apartheid before the shooting, and now we need to summon our strength and resilience, again, to make sure our people are fed, nourished, and loved while we heal.

On the westerly side of the tennis courts on Pine st., 10 fruit trees have been planted in honor of the ten fall victims. This area will continue to be developed as a meditative, memorial garden, phase 2 of our Food Forest project!

Our food forest project will expand on the achievements of Buffalo Freedom Gardens, enabling individuals to take control of their well-being, re-establish a connection to the land, access economical fresh produce, and cultivate freedom and resilience.

3. Freedom Fruit Growers: This program is hoped to began spring of 2026! Households will be able to grow their very own fruit trees with tree steward support!

Donations to Buffalo Freedom Gardens continues our late founder's vision of providing direct access to residents in Buffalo's East Side with fresh, healthy fruits and vegetables in areas where food apartheid is rampant.

Last but not least, we teach workshops on gardening, healthy cooking, agroforestry and more!

More information on the Buffalo Freedom Gardens Urban Food Forest at JFK Park can be found here: BFG Food Forest.