Anat Gerstein Inc.

Tending the crops at Renewal Farm.

Project Renewal, one of the nation’s largest homeless services organizations, today launched a crowdfunding campaign to support Renewal Farm, a unique substance abuse program in Garrison, NY that helps long-term drug users from New York City renew their lives.

The campaign aims to raise $10,000 to buy two new hoop greenhouses that will increase Renewal Farm’s acreage by 50 percent, giving the men in recovery more therapeutic work experience and also increase the amount of fresh, organic produce that the Farm distributes to Hudson Valley restaurants and local charities. Project Renewal is offering donors several rewards as tokens of appreciation, from an herb plant from Renewal Farm to the donors’ names on the new greenhouses — depending on the level of contribution.

Donations can be made online at www.supportrenewalfarm.causevox.com. 

In addition to benefitting the men in recovery, the new hoop greenhouses will enable Renewal Farm to supply produce for the first time to City Beet Kitchens, an extension of Project Renewal’s jobs program that provides culinary training and employs homeless and at-risk New Yorkers.

Renewal Farm is twice as successful as similar programs in the country. It not only provides reentry services such as drug treatment, job placement and housing assistance, but more importantly, it removes these men from toxic environments (where they’re more likely to relapse) and reconnects them with nature until they’re ready to reenter society — working in the farm helps residents find stability again and start over with a clean slate.

In New York State, deaths caused by heroin overdose rose 47 percent between 2010 and 2014 to an all-time high, making it crucial for Renewal Farm to be able to accept more men into the program. Guy Gonzalez, a former advertising executive from New York, broke his 40-year cycle of addiction at Renewal Farm.

With this campaign, Project Renewal intends to help more men like Guy and give homeless New Yorkers and recovering addicts a chance to start fresh.

About Project Renewal

Renewal Farm is run by Project Renewal, a New York City-based nonprofit organization that works to end the cycle of homelessness by empowering men, women and children to renew their lives with health, homes and jobs. For more information, visit www.projectrenewal.org.