Eden Earthworks Project Fresh: Mountain View Community Gardens

Teaching people to produce food for themselves is essential to building sustainable and healthy communities  Project Fresh: Mountain View Community Gardens is an agricultural educational community outreach program designed to increase the number of food growers, food marketers, healthy food choices and affordable nutritious local produce. Thirty low-income participants, seniors, families, school-age children and youth were given hands-on mentoring in ecologically friendly farming. The sustainable practices included creating compost and vermicompost, learning the benefits of plant and animal symbiosis, and utilizing strategies which encourage biodiversity.

 

 A short questionnaire administered at the beginning and after participating in Project Fresh for fifteen months revealed  that families are making healthy food choices, providing food for the family table, sharing, donating or marketing the surplus and passing on the gifts of eco-friendly  farming and recycling methods  which are generating ripple effects in our community. Currently 40 million Americans are using food stamps (USDA; 2010). Planting seeds and nurturing their growth is crucial and catalytic in producing nutritious food, conserving water and land resources, reducing family food budgets and providing alternative income.  The community outreach program has expanded to also include developmental chicken care and bee keeping.  For more information, contact Eden EarthWorks, c/o Neena Roumell,  333-7444, Email: This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.