MarinHEAL Grantees

For close to a decade, the Marin City Community Services District (CSD)’s Intergenerational garden served as a summer learning garden for youth attending CSD’s summer programs. The vision of two local elders – Terrie Green and Sharon Turner – who wanted to teach youth the importance of healthy eating, the garden started out as a container garden. Officially opening in the summer of 2025, the Intergenerational Garden is now complete with 19 planter beds, a small orchard and greenhouse. The garden is ADA accessible for Elders and residents living with physical disabilities Garden plots are offered to residents free of charge.  The summer programs continue to educate youth and incorporate intergenerational storytelling and knowledge transfer between elders and youth. The garden is a space for the many generations of the community to have meaningful interactions and deepen community relations.

The Intergenerational Garden is managed by a Master Gardener. It incorporates a youth stewardship program, recruiting middle schoolers and training them to support the garden manager by tending to the garden’s upkeep. The youth stewards also support the annual summer garden education program.

The summer garden program continues to train youth on nutrition and gardening skills through hands-on activities. Youth utilize the onsite greenhouse to observe the growth cycle of crops through the season and use containers to plant, harvest, and participate in cooking and tasting demos through the program. Each summer, over 70 students attend the annual program.

The MCCSD is planning major infrastructure upgrades to its indoor kitchen, to expand its capacity to prepare harvested produce and increase community capacity through a commercial kitchen. Production from the garden is regularly integrated into cooking demonstrations and community meals, utilizing culturally relevant produce. Elders share cultural practices around food with youth and families, providing an intergenerational exchange of knowledge.

Plans for the garden include creation of a local farmer’s market, bringing production levels to expand plot capacity and offering it during monthly Marin City Market days; a farmers market style event hosted directly in front of the garden. MCCSD has plans to continue creating opportunities for multiple generations to share meals, tend the land, and grow alongside each other.