About the Organization
BloomAgainBklyn is a community-based, nonprofit organization which repurposes unsold and once-used flowers into new arrangements which are distributed by our volunteers to homebound seniors, local nursing home residents, trauma and homeless survivors, food pantry recipients and other low and moderate income populations. Our goal is to reduce social isolation and loneliness among vulnerable populations by creating connections and conversations through repurposed flowers, while facilitating social interaction between volunteers, recipients and other the community organizations.
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BloomAgainBklyn is committed to sustainability and also fulfills an ecological purpose by diverting flowers from the solid waste stream and extending their lifespan by upcycling them into fresh floral arrangements for those in need. We have diverted more than 1.8 million flowers from the solid waste stream, creating 160,000+ floral arrangements for over 18,000 recipients. And we are giving people a chance to do the environmentally right thing.
BloomAgainBklyn is a nonprofit organization incorporated in the State of New York and classified as a public charity under section 501(c)(3) of the Internal Revenue Code and eligible to receive tax deductible requests.
Our Mission
BloomAgainBklyn's mission is to help reduce social isolation and loneliness among vulnerable and LMI populations by creating connections and conversations through repurposed flowers. Our volunteers upcycle unsold and once-used flowers for nursing home residents, homebound older adults, trauma and homelessness survivors, families in shelters, at-risk children and food pantry recipients.
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We are truly a circle of “people helping people,” working side-by-side with more than 70 community organizations and growing each day. Our network of over 2,500 volunteers includes individuals and corporate volunteers, school-age children, community, and social service organizations and, most importantly, the people they serve who receive the flowers.
Our Roots
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BloomAgainBklyn is the brainchild of Carroll Garden’s resident, Caroline Gates Anderson, whose training and experience have been in all things visual from photography (head of photo research for children’s book publishers) to the visual arts (Gates & Tripp Gallery in Boston & Newport) and to flowers.
The idea for BloomAgainBklyn arose as a result of Caroline’s love for flowers and the joy those flowers brought when given to others. When Caroline learned from several local florists that there was no organization similar to a City Harvest for repurposing flowers, she approached Trader Joe’s in Brooklyn to see if they would donate the flowers that were not sold with the idea of giving them to people who do not ordinarily get flowers. Trader Joe’s agreed and BloomAgainBklyn was born.
She then approached Opalia Flowers, floral designers in Boreum Hill Brooklyn, known for their beautiful flower arrangements for events and weddings. Opalia offers to their bridal and event clients the opportunity to donate their arrangements to BloomAgainBklyn following their wedding day or event. Since that time in 2014, more than 60 retailers, florists, floral design fims and others have donated their unused and once-used flowers to BloomAgainBklyn.
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