This past March/April I was involved with this great project in Vallejo/ Mare Island, where I drafted and assisted in the design of Vallejo People’s Garden. Now that it has passed the Architectural Heritage and Landmarks Commission, we need everyone's help to get funding and even need future volunteers. If you're interested please shoot me an email or a call!!
Recently, we...are competing with other communities around the country for these grants, so your vote really helps. In fact, the only way we will win the $25,000 grant from Nature's Path Organics is by getting the most votes. Volunteers to build and sustain the garden will come from both the Vallejo community and the Forest Service, and the fruits, vegetables, herbs, and eggs from the garden will go to homeless, needy, and elderly residents of Vallejo (plus maybe some students from local schools as well).
Voting for Vallejo to receive this funding only takes about 60 seconds. Here's how:
1. Go to http://www.justmeans.com/
2. Create an account by giving your name, email address, and making up a password
3. Check your email and click on the link to activate your account. Now you've voted for us!
Bonus points: you can add a message of support in the comment box.
Please pass this message on to anyone you think would support our effort. Anyone with an email address can vote, and the deadline for votes is May 31. As of today we're in fourth place!
Thanks everyone for your support!!
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Vallejo People’s Garden
Amanda Jane Cundiff
U.S.D.A. Forest Service
Partnership Coordinator for the Pacific Southwest Region
U.S.D.A. Forest Service
Partnership Coordinator for the Pacific Southwest Region
In Vallejo, California, on a decommissioned Naval Shipyard called Mare Island, something good has emerged from hard times: a new community coalition to build and sustain a city garden.
Home to over 110,000, Vallejo is known for being diverse, depressed, crime-ridden, and bankrupt. Since the Naval Shipyard closed and the recession hit, Vallejo has struggled with poverty, stretched city services, and troubled schools. Crime and poverty are high, and, perhaps as a result, Vallejo is a quintessential food desert.
Our coalition envisions a People’s Garden for Vallejo. The Garden will provide fresh produce to low-income residents and teach sustainable gardening practices. Coalition members each bring something vital to the project: volunteers to build and maintain the garden, low-income clients to benefit from vegetables and fresh eggs, and students to learn about nutrition and food production through action. The lead partners in the Vallejo People’s Garden are:
• Global Center for Success (www.globalcenterforsuccess.
• The Regional Office of the USDA Forest Service, located on Mare Island, employs over 200 people. The Forest Service will contribute volunteers and (eventually) land for a second garden. Employees want to follow the example set by Thomas Vilsack, the Secretary of Agriculture, when he started a garden next to USDA offices on the National Mall last year (www.usda.gov/peoplesgarden). The convenient location of the Vallejo People’s Garden will provide an opportunity for employees to meet and work alongside our neighbors and have a healthy place to volunteer during lunch breaks and after work.
• Betty Frank Senior Lunch Program is a 501(c)(3) feeding program that serves lunch daily in a community center, about 10 minutes from Mare Island in Vallejo. The coalition plans to provide fresh produce to this senior center’s kitchen and to arrange visits for seniors to tour and even volunteer in the garden. (They organize other outings already.) The drawn plans for the garden include handicapped-accessible raised beds that will be easy for seniors to reach.
We envision that the Vallejo People’s Garden will draw together an array of residents, as well as volunteers from the Forest Service, Vallejo Garden Club, and beneficiaries from GCS and Betty Frank Programs. Additionally, teachers at Mare Island Elementary School across the street from the future garden site are excited about bringing students over for lessons in food production and nutrition.
A Nature’s Path grant would make these plans a reality. We have land, water access, drawn-up plans, and permits, but no funding. A Nature’s Path grant would allow us to purchase the materials, tools, and lumber to build raised beds, compost bins, a chicken house, bee hive, fencing, educational signs, rain barrels, and storage shed.
