Community gardens help families plot a healthy lifestyle

Ana Rasmussen, program manager of Mesa Verde Gardens, teams up with Leonardo Hernandez recently in establishing a perimeter for a new garden at the Lutheran Community Church in Watsonville. (Photo by Tarmo Hannula)

Riding a wave of success with her first community garden, Ana Rasmussen, program manager of Mesa Verde Gardens, is at it again with two more similar garden projects in Watsonville.

The initial garden project, the Martinelli Children’s Community Garden on the land of All Saints Episcopal Church, was launched in spring. Once just a quarter-acre grassy lot, the 7-month-old plot is now a thriving garden with 30 individual family plots punctuated with budding vegetables and flowers.

Now, thanks to a grant from the Pajaro Valley Community Health Trust, two new gardens are breaking ground, one at the United Methodist Church, 229 Stanford St., and the other at Lutheran Community Church, 95 Alta Vista St.

The United Methodist garden will have about 25 individual family gardens, while the Lutheran garden will have 15.

“The garden at All Saints really took off,” Rasmussen said. “Families are taking care of their plots and taking home nutritious food that they grow.”

A chief goal of the projects, Rasmussen said, is to target childhood obesity.

“It makes sense,” she said. “To help people grow organic, nutritious food for themselves will have impact on obesity with our young children.”

In 2010 Rasmussen helped spearhead 10 community gardens at local preschools generated from the Pajaro Valley Community Health Trust.

“My long-term vision is to create many community gardens,” Rasmussen said. “I feel very strongly that I was called to this work.”

For the complete article see the 11-10-2011 issue.

Click here to purchase an electronic version of the 11-10-2011 paper.

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