NEWARK — The Brick City is getting greener.

A 2.5-acre lot, across the street from Newark Mayor Cory Booker's apartment, has sat dormant for years after the Schools Development Authority pulled funding for school construction on the site.

But a group of local activists and gardeners, with a little help from the Greater Newark Conservancy and City Hall, have claimed the lot for an ambitious community garden, learning center and urban farm.

"It's one of the best ways to engage people and connect them back to the land," said Elizabeth Reynoso, the city's food policy director.

Today, the Newark Garden Coalition hosted a "Meet and Greet" at the site, officially named the Hawthorne Hawks Healthy Harvest Farm and people streamed in and out throughout the day, picking up literature, eating healthy snacks and offering to volunteer.

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Piles of soil and potted trees sit aside the lot and and dozens of wooden boxes are under construction to eventually serve as raised garden plots. With funding and management from the conservancy, a non-profit that helps create and preserve green spaces, the site will become the city's largest urban farm.

The effort is part of an ongoing push from Newark's office of sustainability, as well as community groups, to create green spaces in the city and encourage city dwellers to learn about gardening, food production and sustainability.

For Cass Zang Gonmiah, a local community activist and one of the day's organizers, the farm and gardens serve many purposes.

"It's one of the main problems in Newark: the lack of community," Gonmiah said as her five children frolicked through the space. "My kids don't get to be in a place like this."

Aside from the benefits of healthy organic produce, she said growing one's own vegetables is cost effective.

"We can grow most of what we need to eat," Gonmiah said. "Growing your own food is like printing your own money."

But there is a spiritual component as well. For $10 a month, any resident can have his own plot and grow whatever he chooses, within legal limits.

"It changes the morale of the community," said Marieliz Monclova, a health coach and food adviser.

This artist's rendering indicates what the Hawthorne farm will feature when it is completed.

The site on Hawthorne is the second major urban farm in Newark after a successful venture on the Court Street grounds of the Krueger-Scott mansion. In addition, dozens of smaller community gardens dot the city.

When the full design is implemented the farm will feature dozens of community plots, a tree farm, a learning farm, a fruit tree tunnel, a grape trellis, a blueberry patch and a permanent farm stand, according to a rendering by Justin Allen, the greening director at the Greater Newark Conservancy.

Gonmiah and others at today's event said they hope to "green" as much of Newark as possible.

"It's the largest city in a state called 'The Garden State,'" she said. "Newark is bringing the garden back."