Grant Will Help Spring Valley Community Garden Lay Down Roots

The long-proposed “community garden” for Spring Valley, located at the Spring Valley-East Communities Center, took a giant step toward becoming operational with the announcement in late April that the garden was awarded approximately $10,000 in federal grant money.

The Spring Valley garden is one of five county garden education projects selected to receive aid, part of a larger $16 million Center for Disease Control grant (called the Healthy Works Grant) that was given in March of last year to the San Diego County Health and Human Services Agency.

Barbara Warner, collaborative coordinator with San Diego Youth & Family Coalition, the organization spearheading the garden, said that the grant will go toward purchasing materials, tools, and paying for maintenance staff and public training sessions.

“It's a modest grant, but it is invaluable in terms of community awareness,” she said. “We see the garden as a way to grow community,” she said. “The garden, we hope, will be a place where the community can come and learn about healthy foods, where they come from, and how they are grown.”

The Healthy Works Grant is one component of a larger initiative, Communities Putting Prevention to Work (CPPW), which was established as part of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009. The federal initiative aims to improve eating behaviors and attitudes in communities, and promote healthier lifestyles.

The garden plot is 130 feet by 40 feet and sits on a lot adjacent to Bancroft Avenue at the community center site. The plot was cleared of old rusted playground equipment in June 2010 and began being cultivated soon after. Earlier this year, a of various vegetables was grown successfully. Warner said that the harvest included tomatoes, peppers, sunflowers, corn and pumpkins.

Once the garden is fully functional, it is hoped that it will be a gathering place for the public, who will be able to farm their own small plots. In addition, as a Regional Garden Education Center, extensive public education courses about gardening, nutrition, and healthy eating will be offered at the site.

The CPPW grant is three-fold. It stresses education through healthy living/eating courses, promotes access to and establishment of community gardens, and helps provide gardens in local schools. That involves public training of 88 residents and 26 school staff, said Warner.

Judy Jacoby, who helps run the San Diego Community Garden Network, is involved with getting the project off the ground at the SVECC site. She said that Bancroft, Casa de Oro, Highlands and Kempton elementary schools are all in different stages of implementing gardens at their campuses as part of the program.

For now, there is still much to be done in terms of formalizing paperwork, identifying organizations with which to partner, scheduling community training sessions, and bringing in experienced people to help launch the program. But with the approval of the grant money, Warner thinks the garden will soon be sustainable and  fruitful, literally and figuratively.