- Author: Chutima Ganthavorn
On the morning of April 22, the CSA garden families and the CSA Garden Coalition team gathered to celebrate the opening of the new garden at Community Settlement Association (CSA) in Riverside. Riverside City Councilman Andy Melendrez honored the families for choosing healthy eating & active living by growing a vegetable garden. Each family was recognized and given a Heal Zone t-shirt. Family members spent the rest of the morning planting in their own garden plots. The seedlings were donated by UC Master Gardener Program's Grow Lab.
This event came about when Emma Sandoval, a UC CalFresh nutrition educator suggested “We should have a kick off for the new garden on Earth Day”. Emma has been working on the new garden project to fulfill the practicum requirement for her master's degree at Cal Baptist University. The members of the CSA garden coalition were wholeheartedly supportive of this idea. The Coalition is made up of members from two units of University of California Cooperative Extension (UC CalFresh Nutrition Education Program and Master Gardener Program) and members of the Heal Zone Project. The Bermuda Garden expansion was funded by a $10,000 grant from Kaiser Permanente through its Heal Zone Project, currently headed up by Ninfa Delgado, vice president of Riverside Community Health Foundation.
It took five months of hard work to put up fencing and turn the lawn area into 17 garden plots. Kudos to three people who were instrumental in making this garden happen: Emma Sandoval (project lead), Claudia Villegas (UC Riverside Global Food Initiative student fellow) and Fortino Morales (UCCE Master Gardener and UCR community garden coordinator). A total of 55 volunteers helped out at various times. Thank you all!