WHO'S YOUR URBAN FARMER?
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About Us
History of GCG * The Crew * Our Partners
Jessie driving a car in an episode of "Wife Swap", 2007
History of GCG
In June of 2008, Jessie Banhazl was sitting in a minivan in the middle of Manhattan, taking a break from working on an episode of MTV's "The Hills". Her phone rang, and her old friend from college, Gabriel Erde-Cohen, enthusiastically asked to her to sit down for coffee: he had an idea. Upon returning to Boston from her work trip to NY (Jessie had been freelancing in reality television production for the previous two years), Gabe, who had spent the last few years working in horticulture, let her know that he had been perusing the idea of a backyard farming business based loosely on the model of "Your Backyard Farmer" in Portland, Oregon. Gabe called up Portland and they told him the idea was a viable business model. He called Jessie, and they decided to go for it.
In 2009, Jessie stepped up as sole owner and managing director, bringing in Anne Lemay Hurley to co-run the company as the Operations Director. GCG partnered with Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare, installing two large vegetable gardens at their corporate locations, and focused on structuring a program that would allow employers to install on-site vegetable gardens for their staff. By the end of 2009, GCG had installed almost 100 raised-beds, partnered with a major corporation, and established themselves as the leading producer of raised-bed vegetable gardens for homes and businesses in New England.
In 2010, Adrianne Schaefer joined the team as GCG's Sales Manager. With her help, Green City Growers has doubled their business, expanding to new towns and types of businesses that can benefit from having vegetable gardens on-site, including Assisted Living Centers, Hospitals, Schools, and Food Service Providers. Green City Growers teamed with Recover Green Roofs to step up (literally up) their game and begin installing large vegetable production sites on rooftops. Partnering with Recover has allowed them to work with green roofs and structural engineers to allow for the highest possible yield from high above ground level. GCG has also added catering and cafe clients such as Ula Cafe, Tables of Content Catering, Gourmet Caterers, and the Cafeteria at Mathworks in Natick. With articles in the NY Times, USA Today, the Boston Globe, WBUR, a spot on Chronicle, and events with the American Heart Association and the Museum of Science
2011 and Beyond? We've Installed over 350 Raised-beds and worked with 75 different home owners, businesses, schools, and restaurants in Eastern MA. Our new clients include Ole Mexican Grill, the Seaport Hotel, Temple Beth Avodah in Newton, Massachusetts Medical Society, Abt Associates, and more. GCG is continuing to fill unused spaces with vegetable gardens, and making it easy to grow food at home, at work, at school, or anywhere the sun shines.
The Crew
GCG Crew, 2011 (from left): Yinnon, Jason, Jessie, Adrianne, Marta (intern), Anne, Tany, Allison
Jessie Banhazl is
the Managing Director, Owner, and Co-Founder of Green City Growers. She has a Bachelor's Degree from Smith College
in Northampton, MA, and is a Boston-area native. After graduating, she moved to New York City and began a career in reality
television production. Disillusioned
with the entertainment industry, she moved back to Boston to run GCG, re-awakening her passion for food, farming, and
sustainability. Jessie has extensive experience in marketing, communications, management, production, and PR. She is involved in the Local Food movement, and is passionate
about cooking with fresh ingredients. Since co-founding the company in 2008, Jessie has
lead GCG through two successful seasons, building and maintaining over 300 raised-bed vegetable gardens, and forming a partnership with Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare to promote wellness through growing food at the workplace. Jessie can be found wearing multiple hats daily, and is often dirt-covered and farming in the morning, running the business in the afternoon, and speaking at events in the evening.
Anne Lemay
Hurley is the
Director of Operations. Anne is a Massachusetts New
York University EARTH University
for Sustainable Agriculture in Costa
Rica Texas Vermont Natural Building Thailand
Adrianne Schaefer is our Sales Manager. She has
a Degree in Politics and Economics of Developing
Nations from University of Masachusetts-Dartmouth. While there, she
worked on social justice and green
initiatives including fair trade, local food, and energy saving, and gained experience in event planning,
coordinating, and outreach. Before moving to Boston she was a
consultant at MA Farm to School project in Amherst, connecting farms
and schools across the state of MA, and coordinated workshops for
NOFA's Regional Sustainability Conference. She is also the Farmers
Market Manager for the Union Square Farmers market in Somerville. She is
fired up about local food, radical urban sustainability, green
building, and projects that improve neighborhoods socially,
economically and environmentally.
Jason
Price is our Head of Restaurant Services and a GCG Maintenance Farmer. Jason has over ten years of
experience in organic agriculture and land-use management. He attended
Sterling College in Craftsbury Common, Vermont, where he was educated in
land-use and agricultural management. He also has a certificate of
Natural Building from Yestermorrow Design/Build School. Jason began
working for a small commercial farm in 2000, and in 2003 he became the
owner/operator of Sol to Soul Organics where he explored the art of
growing organic vegetables and seed saving. Jason loves plants and
helping people grow and eat their own produce.
Tany Horgan is our Education Outreach Coordinator and a GCG Maintenance
Farmer. Tany received a degree in Plant, Soil, and Insect Sciences
concentrating in Sustainable Agriculture from the University of
Massachusetts at Amherst. During her time in the valley, she helped
organize a student-run farm that sold produce to other student-run
businesses on campus. Prior to being hired at GCG, Tany worked at the
Food Project as a supervisor of their youth empowerment and garden
education program. She also worked at Cape Cod Organic Farm. Tany's interest in community food systems and food justice drives her work at GCG through connecting people to dirt and delicious produce.
Jessie driving a car in an episode of "Wife Swap", 2007
History of GCG
In June of 2008, Jessie Banhazl was sitting in a minivan in the middle of Manhattan, taking a break from working on an episode of MTV's "The Hills". Her phone rang, and her old friend from college, Gabriel Erde-Cohen, enthusiastically asked to her to sit down for coffee: he had an idea. Upon returning to Boston from her work trip to NY (Jessie had been freelancing in reality television production for the previous two years), Gabe, who had spent the last few years working in horticulture, let her know that he had been perusing the idea of a backyard farming business based loosely on the model of "Your Backyard Farmer" in Portland, Oregon. Gabe called up Portland and they told him the idea was a viable business model. He called Jessie, and they decided to go for it.
In 2009, Jessie stepped up as sole owner and managing director, bringing in Anne Lemay Hurley to co-run the company as the Operations Director. GCG partnered with Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare, installing two large vegetable gardens at their corporate locations, and focused on structuring a program that would allow employers to install on-site vegetable gardens for their staff. By the end of 2009, GCG had installed almost 100 raised-beds, partnered with a major corporation, and established themselves as the leading producer of raised-bed vegetable gardens for homes and businesses in New England.
In 2010, Adrianne Schaefer joined the team as GCG's Sales Manager. With her help, Green City Growers has doubled their business, expanding to new towns and types of businesses that can benefit from having vegetable gardens on-site, including Assisted Living Centers, Hospitals, Schools, and Food Service Providers. Green City Growers teamed with Recover Green Roofs to step up (literally up) their game and begin installing large vegetable production sites on rooftops. Partnering with Recover has allowed them to work with green roofs and structural engineers to allow for the highest possible yield from high above ground level. GCG has also added catering and cafe clients such as Ula Cafe, Tables of Content Catering, Gourmet Caterers, and the Cafeteria at Mathworks in Natick. With articles in the NY Times, USA Today, the Boston Globe, WBUR, a spot on Chronicle, and events with the American Heart Association and the Museum of Science
2011 and Beyond? We've Installed over 350 Raised-beds and worked with 75 different home owners, businesses, schools, and restaurants in Eastern MA. Our new clients include Ole Mexican Grill, the Seaport Hotel, Temple Beth Avodah in Newton, Massachusetts Medical Society, Abt Associates, and more. GCG is continuing to fill unused spaces with vegetable gardens, and making it easy to grow food at home, at work, at school, or anywhere the sun shines.
The Crew
GCG Crew, 2011 (from left): Yinnon, Jason, Jessie, Adrianne, Marta (intern), Anne, Tany, Allison
Jessie Banhazl is
the Managing Director, Owner, and Co-Founder of Green City Growers. She has a Bachelor's Degree from Smith College
in Northampton, MA, and is a Boston-area native. After graduating, she moved to New York City and began a career in reality
television production. Disillusioned
with the entertainment industry, she moved back to Boston to run GCG, re-awakening her passion for food, farming, and
sustainability. Jessie has extensive experience in marketing, communications, management, production, and PR. She is involved in the Local Food movement, and is passionate
about cooking with fresh ingredients. Since co-founding the company in 2008, Jessie has
lead GCG through two successful seasons, building and maintaining over 300 raised-bed vegetable gardens, and forming a partnership with Harvard Pilgrim Healthcare to promote wellness through growing food at the workplace. Jessie can be found wearing multiple hats daily, and is often dirt-covered and farming in the morning, running the business in the afternoon, and speaking at events in the evening.
Anne Lemay
Hurley is the
Director of Operations. Anne is a Adrianne Schaefer is our Sales Manager. She has
a Degree in Politics and Economics of Developing
Nations from University of Masachusetts-Dartmouth. While there, she
worked on social justice and green
initiatives including fair trade, local food, and energy saving, and gained experience in event planning,
coordinating, and outreach. Before moving to Boston she was a
consultant at MA Farm to School project in Amherst, connecting farms
and schools across the state of MA, and coordinated workshops for
NOFA's Regional Sustainability Conference. She is also the Farmers
Market Manager for the Union Square Farmers market in Somerville. She is
fired up about local food, radical urban sustainability, green
building, and projects that improve neighborhoods socially,
economically and environmentally.
Allison Houghton is our Horticultural Manager. Since Graduating
MIT with a degree in Geology and Environmental Engineering, she has rediscovered
her passion for plants, healthy soil, environmental stewardship and
sustainability. Allison joined GCG in the beginning of 2010, bringing to the
table her interests and experience in indoor and outdoor composting, container
gardening, permaculture, biointensive gardening techniques, home gourmet
mushroom growing, cooking and preserving local food, and growing backyard
fruits and berries. Allison is also the proud owner of two urban bee hives!
Jason
Price is our Head of Restaurant Services and a GCG Maintenance Farmer. Jason has over ten years of
experience in organic agriculture and land-use management. He attended
Sterling College in Craftsbury Common, Vermont, where he was educated in
land-use and agricultural management. He also has a certificate of
Natural Building from Yestermorrow Design/Build School. Jason began
working for a small commercial farm in 2000, and in 2003 he became the
owner/operator of Sol to Soul Organics where he explored the art of
growing organic vegetables and seed saving. Jason loves plants and
helping people grow and eat their own produce. Tany Horgan is our Education Outreach Coordinator and a GCG Maintenance
Farmer. Tany received a degree in Plant, Soil, and Insect Sciences
concentrating in Sustainable Agriculture from the University of
Massachusetts at Amherst. During her time in the valley, she helped
organize a student-run farm that sold produce to other student-run
businesses on campus. Prior to being hired at GCG, Tany worked at the
Food Project as a supervisor of their youth empowerment and garden
education program. She also worked at Cape Cod Organic Farm. Tany's interest in community food systems and food justice drives her work at GCG through connecting people to dirt and delicious produce. 
