Naper Settlement and the Naperville Heritage Society have been awarded a $21,000 grant through DuPage Foundation’s Community Impact grant program to support a sustainable permaculture garden in the museum.
The garden, set to open in 2025, will serve as a hub for education and engagement on regenerative practices, environmental sciences, and sustainability, according to a press release from Naper Settlement.
What will the new permaculture garden in Naper Settlement feature?
Naper Settlement’s new garden will feature edible native plants historically used in Indigenous farming before colonization. Among these is the “three sisters” planting technique, which includes corn/maize, squash, and beans.
In partnership with OLI Gardens, the museum is going to donate all viable crop yields from the garden to local food banks to help alleviate food insecurity.
The garden will also include educational programs like environmental science tests, water quality tests, and soil health experiments to encourage participants to explore topics in environmental science and sustainability.
“Thank you to the DuPage Foundation for their continued support of Naper Settlement and the permaculture garden project. It is an important addition to telling Naperville’s agricultural history and will engage students and visitors alike with hands-on learning that will have a lasting impact on how we understand our local environment and sustainability,” said Rena Tamayo-Calabrese, president and CEO at Naper Settlement.
DuPage Foundation fall grants
DuPage Foundation has awarded nearly $580,000 to 56 not-for-profit organizations across DuPage County through its fall discretionary grant programs: Community Impact, Arts DuPage, and Glen Ellyn Fund.
“Our grant program exists because of generous donors who have made unrestricted gifts or established endowed field-of-interest funds at the Foundation,” said Barb Szczepaniak, DuPage Foundation vice president for programs. “By working together, we are providing critical support to our community’s not-for-profits. That’s the power of coordinated impact at work.”
If you have a story idea, we want to hear from you.
