No doubt you've seen the images. Long, sometimes miles-long, lines of people waiting at food banks and food pantries. As the pandemic continues and unemployment rates continue to rise, (18.3% in San Joaquin County as of April 2020, up from 5.8% in April 2019… the highest unemployment numbers since the Great Depression), the challenges for food banks and panties have increased for the continuing and newly food insecure.
During the shelter in place, many people have taken to vegetable gardening as a way to stretch their food budget dollars, pass their time at home, and seek to create some sustainability. Unfortunately, home gardening for those in apartments or homeless is either a limited option or not an option.
In the San Joaquin County, where land prices are less than those in more congested urban areas, and where the soil and climate are conducive for fruit and vegetable growing, there are three, almost secret, gardens dedicated to providing fresh herbs, produce, and fruit for the homeless and food insecure. These gardens are located on a formerly empty patch of land behind a parking lot, alongside a soup kitchen, and at the Stockton Emergency Food Bank and are attended to or supervised by San Joaquin Master Gardeners
The newest garden is located at Grace and Mercy in Lodi. Eight raised beds, along the side of the house which serves as a soup kitchen, were rebuilt as an Eagle Scout project by Clayton Young, and provide fresh herbs and vegetables year-round. Two herb beds, literally right outside the back door to the kitchen, are planted with oregano, sage, chives, rosemary, lemon verbena, a variety of basil, and thyme. The six remaining beds are planted with zucchini, squash, tomatoes, cucumbers, melon and okra. Produce is used onsite and surplus is added to boxes delivered to homebound seniors. For more information on Grace and Mercy, visit: https://gracenmercylodi.com/.
Tucked behind the administration offices at the Stockton Emergency Food Bank are 20 immaculately-groomed raised beds, and a small sitting area. Seasonal plantings include zucchini, tomatoes, peppers, and cucumbers. There are also a dozen fruit and citrus trees. http://stocktonfoodbank.org/.
The third and largest garden is the St. Joseph's Jerry Roek Memorial Garden located behind a parking lot on California Street in Stockton. The garden consists of 32 raised beds, either 16 or 20 feet long. They are arranged in circles and resemble two wagon wheels. Between these two “wheels” is a gazebo which is used as respite for garden volunteers. Eagle Scout Christopher Roek, grandson of Jerry Roek for whom the garden is named, erected a wonderful sign for the garden as his Eagle Scout project. The year-round garden is currently planted with summer crops including lots of tomatoes (the largesse was from a Master Gardener plant sale that was canceled due to the stay-in-place orders), eggplant, peppers, basil, zucchini, and cucumbers. There are numerous stone fruit trees, and a small grove of citrus trees was added this past spring. The produce from this garden is delivered within hours of harvest to the St. Mary's Dining Room where it is used in preparing over 3178,000 meals (2019) to feed the homeless and disenfranchised members of the Stockton community https://stmarysdiningroom.org/ .
Food insecurity is a growing problem. Other San Joaquin gardens help in other ways. Puentes, www.puentesca.org rents community plots, the Black Urban Farmers Association (covered in this summer blog) grows produce for sale through low-income programs and donates to St. Mary's Dining Room), and the Loel Center Community Garden, http://www.loelcenter.net/facility/loel-community-garden/, rents raised garden boxes.
A core value of the Master Gardener program is to teach and extend information to address home gardening and non-commercial horticulture needs, using science-based research. Ordinarily these gardens are also used as outdoor classrooms and once it is safe to again resume in-person classes, we hope to continue with one of our missions of hands-on education for the general public.