Briefingwire.com, 6/5/15 - Brookline, MA – [URL=www.greencitygrowers.com]Green City Growers[/URL] (GCG), a Somerville-based urban farming company, announced today the installation of a chicken coop at [URL=www.goddardhouse.org]Goddard House Assisted Living[/URL] in Brookline. GCG will additionally provide chicken keeping services and educational programing for the community’s older adult residents. Goddard House is one of the first clients to adopt these offerings, new to the suite of Green City Growers products and services after a late-2014 partnership with [URL=www.yardbirdsbackyardchickens.com]Yardbirds Backyard Chickens[/URL].The coop with six chickens will be housed in the expansive backyard at the assisted living community. Staff from GCG will maintain the coop, as well as provide educational programming to residents in combination with the already-established vegetable gardening programs. Ginny Mazur, Community Partnership Director at Goddard House, describes the process of adding chicken programming to the community:
“It was serendipity. We had such wonderful gardening programs going on with GCG that both residents and staff members, including our Executive Director John Moniz III wondered, ‘What if we have an animal component?’ Sure enough, we discovered that GCG was starting a chicken initiative.”
Mazur notes, also, that Moniz has experience raising a variety of farm animals, having grown up on his family’s dairy farm in Rhode Island. “It was natural for him to suggest chickens.” Several of the Goddard House staff and residents also grew up raising farm animals.
“After reading articles in the Boston Globe and hearing a story on NPR about the therapeutic benefits of chickens, they were the choice” says Moniz. “We hope the residents will find the hens engaging and fun to watch.”
Jessie Banhazl, CEO and Founder of GCG, is thrilled with this new project and confident in its success. “We could not be more excited to provide a community like Goddard House with chickens this spring!” says Banhazl. “The permitting process was incredibly smooth, especially given that laws governing urban chicken-keeping typically only allow for coop installations at private residences. This is the first exception granted.” We hope that a successful program at Goddard will become a model program, inspiring elder care and Alzheimer’s care communities throughout the Greater Boston area to consider adding such unique programming.
About [URL=www.greencitygrowers.com]Green City Growers[/URL]: Green City Growers (GCG) is an urban agriculture business specializing in the installation and maintenance of raised bed gardens, rooftop farms and indoor growing systems, using only organic OMRI approved methods. GCG transforms otherwise unused space into thriving urban farms providing schools, home-owners, restaurants, businesses and communities immediate access to nutritious food, while revitalizing city landscapes and inspiring self-sufficiency through garden education programs. Green City Growers was founded by Jessie Banhazl in 2008.
About [URL=www.goddardhouse.org]Goddard House Assisted Living[/URL]: Goddard House has been at the forefront of serving older adults since 1849, when they opened the first not-for-profit home for the elderly in Massachusetts. Goddard House offers both traditional and memory support assisted living apartments.