Revitalizing Hunting Park

Fairmount Park Conservancy

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State Representative Tony Payton at KaBOOM!'s Build Day

Revitalizing Hunting Park

The Hunting Park Revitalization Project is a community-driven revitalization effort for the 87-acre section of Fairmount Park in North Philadelphia. The Fairmount Park Conservancy and Philadelphia Parks & Recreation are partnering on a $20 million revitalization project with the goal of creating a safe and well-maintained park space that will provide a place of healthy recreation for children and families.

Phase One of the Project is currently underway, with $3.6 million secured for the following capital improvements:

Your support is needed to help continue making this transformation a reality! Contact the Fairmount Park Conservancy for information on sponsorship opportunities at 215-988-9334. To view the Hunting Park Revitalization Project Executive Summary please click here.

Recent News:

GMC & United Way Installed New Playground at Hunting Park on Friday, November 4th. GMC, United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania and a few celebrity builders teamed up with 50 volunteers to assemble equipment, supplied by GameTime, and installed the United Way Healthy Kids Zone- Driven by GMC playground in Hunting Park. Volunteers helped constuct the new playground and install new landscaping around the playground.  The press event was hosted by Ron Jaworski, and we heard about the importance of parks from community leaders. This is the second playground constucted in Hunting Park as part of the Fairmount Park Conservancy's Hunting Park Revitalization Project. 

Hunting Park Community Garden Dedicated on Saturday, October 15th, 2011.  Joined by project partners, community members, gardeners, funders, elected and other government officials, and board members, the Fairmount Park Conservancy dedicated the 11,000 square foot Hunting Park Community Garden with a ceremonial planting in one of the 62 plots.

Construction to renovate the Hunting Park baseball field began on Monday, June 13th, 2011. A key component of Phase One of the Hunting Park Revitalization Project, construction of the baseball field is set to be completed by the end of the summer. The Fairmount Park Conservancy will be documenting the progress of the construction, so be sure to visit our Facebook page for updates.

On June 4th, 2011, the Hunting Park Farmers' Market opened to the public. Offering fresh vegetables, fruit, cheese, and baked goods to the Hunting Park neighborhood, which in 2003 was classified as a "food desert" in a study completed by The Food Trust, the Farmers' Market is a critical step in the completion of Phase One of the Hunting Park Revitalization Project. The Farmers' Market has been made possible through the partnership of the Fairmount Park Conservancy, The Food Trust, Philadelphia Department of Public Health, and Philadelphia Parks & Recreation. The Farmers' Market is open every Saturday from 10 am to 2 pm through November.

For 2011, Hunting Park has been chosen as one of six national sites for the Convergence Partnerships' Violence Prevention, Healthy Eating, Active Living pilot program, with a focus on youth stewardship and job training, and establishing healthy food resources for the community in the park with a farmers’ market and community garden. Supporting the community’s active role in shaping the future of their park will allow Hunting Park to become a vital resource for recreation, community cohesion, increased positive health outcomes, and will add to stabilization of the surrounding neighborhoods. The VP-HEAL project partners from the Philadelphia area are: Fairmount Park Conservancy; The Food Trust; Hunting Park United; MEE Productions; Nu Sigma Youth Services; Pennsylvania Horticulture Society – Philadelphia Green program; Philadelphia Anti-Drug/Anti-Violence Network (PAAN); Philadelphia Dept. of Public Health; Philadelphia Parks & Recreation; PHL Urban Food & Fitness Alliance (PUFFA); United Way of Southeastern Pennsylvania. For more information on the Convergence Partnership, please click here.

In December 2010, the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation awarded the Fairmount Park Conservancy a $100,000 grant to create a Community Management Plan for the Hunting Park concession operations that will serve as a national model for providing healthy and affordable food for young people. The Community Management Plan will also outline revenue strategies from the concessions that will provide a source of funding for projects and programs in the surrounding park and recreational areas.  This funding would support a variety of needs, including athletic programs and capital improvements and assist in Parks & Recreation’s goal of supporting the development of sustainable communities and stable neighborhoods.

In October 2010, the Hunting Park Revitalization project was featured on NBC Nightly News with Brian Williams. The piece highlighted the construction of the KaBOOM! playground that happened in one day in September, 2010.

 

This project is made possible thanks to these sponsors: Cindy and John Affleck; Citizens Bank; City of Philadelphia; The Honorable Darrell L. Clarke; Commonwealth of Pennsylvania; Convergence Partnership of the Tides Foundation; KaBOOM!; Patricia Kind; Laura and Marc McKenna;McLean Contributionship; Philadelphia Parks & Recreation; Pennsylvania State Representative Tony Payton; The Honorable Maria Quinones-Sanchez; Robert Wood Johnson Foundation; The Ryan Howard Family Foundation; NFL Grassroots/LISC; United States Tennis Association; Edith R. Dixon; Dorrance H. Hamilton 99 Charitable Trust; FMC Corporation; Energy Coordinating Agency; and our Growing the Neighborhood sponsors ACE Group; MedRisk; NovaCare Rehabilitation; The Philadelphia Foundation - Alfred J. Lofgren & Antoinette Farrar Seymour Donor-Advised Fund; PRWT Services, Inc.; TD Bank Foundation; and U.S. Facilities, Inc.