“The goal is to make Buffalo a beautiful place”, said J. Milton “Zeke” Zeckhauser. The retired stockbroker, civic leader, local retailer, philanthropist, and founder of Grassroots Gardens of WNY, turned his personal love of gardening into a vision to build community gardens and green spaces in challenged lower-income neighborhoods on Buffalo’s east and lower-west side.
Inspired by his visits to Butchart Gardens on Vancouver Island, Keukenhof Botanical Gardens in the Netherlands, and a garden initiative in Philadelphia, he imagined every empty lot in the city in bloom.
“My dad ordered tulips from the Netherlands and donated a lot of them to the city. I remember, especially, seeing them around the fountain where the roundabout is at Gates Circle. I think several thousand were planted,” said his daughter, Judy Zeckhauser. She recalls her dad started by planting his own tomatoes, beans, and cucumbers on a neighbor’s land that was not being used. “He turned what was virtually a wasteland into a beautiful garden. He started small, and then he expanded his horizons. It was like a ripple effect.”
Zeckhauser wanted to see uncared-for vacant lots planted with lovely flowers, trees, and vegetable beds, believing it would strengthen a sense of community ownership and belonging, and bring neighbors together for a common purpose. In the early 1990s, along with other dedicated gardeners, block clubs, and organizers, he founded the non-profit organization Grassroots Gardens of Buffalo, which incorporated in 1995. Soon after, Sally Marks became Grassroots Gardens’ first Board president. Mr. Zeckhauser was appointed City Coordinator of Community Gardens by Mayor Anthony Masiello.
At first run largely by volunteers, and initially supporting 30 city gardens, Grassroots has grown to over 110 gardens in the City of Buffalo, on campuses of many Buffalo Schools, and some gardens in Niagara Falls. A Gala event recently celebrated Grassroots Garden’s 30th anniversary in 2025.
In civic leadership, J. Milton Zeckhauser served as president for many organizations, including the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra, Jewish Family Service, and the Temple Beth Zion Brotherhood, the National Conference of Christians and Jews, Broadway-Fillmore Association, Main Street Association, and Westwood Country Club. He was very active in the Food Bank of Western New York, and the Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies. Zeckhauser received the 1964 Good Neighbor Award from the City of Buffalo, the 1971 Brotherhood Award, named a Buffalo News Citizen of the Year in 1999, and was given the Buffalo-in-Bloom Mayor’s Award in 2003.
When he was just shy of his 92nd birthday, he was honored to carry the Olympic torch on Main Street in Eggertsville.
Sources:
> Buffalo Business First, August 23, 1998, Annmarie Franczyk, Neighborhood gardens produce urban harvest.
> Buffalo News, Obituaries, April 10, 2006, J. Milton Zeckhauser.
> Buffalo Spree, Archives, April 2007, Lisa Kane, Helping Communities Take Root: Grassroots Gardens of Buffalo.
> Knigge, L. (2006): Emerging public spaces in marginalized urban places: the political economy of community gardens in Buffalo, NY – Unpublished PhD dissertation, 2.2,
Department of Geography, University of Buffalo, State University of New York.
> Buffalo Rising, September 3, 2021, Newell Nussbaumer, Grassroots Gardens of WNY
Earns National Recognition.
