Marin City Community Services District
Intergenerational Garden
This year through the collaboration with MarinHEAL, the Nevada Campus team hopes to complete hardscape projects including renovating old garden beds, installing a poly-tunnel, replacing storage sheds, creating arbors, and updating the fencing and irrigation system. Some of these projects have already begun, thanks to a partnership with Farms to Grow, who completed an assessment of the three gardens. Through these garden improvements, the team aims to increase production capacity, and to supply more produce for the school nutrition program, along with neighboring community organizations.
The Intergenerational Garden located at the Marin City Community Services District (MCCSD) had a thriving summer, with the official grand opening hosted on June 29th in the peak of the summer. As this was the first year that enough fruits and vegetables were grown to be incorporated into meal prepping, the garden transitioned from a demonstration garden to a community garden. With a total of 14 planter beds available, various crops were planted and harvested including tomatoes, potatoes, onions, zucchini, cucumbers, artichokes, squash, eggplant, collard greens, garlic, and many more.
There are various programs that support the management of the garden, such as community workdays where volunteers can come tend to the space. The MCCSD team hopes to continue improving and expanding on the existing work in the garden. This includes collaborating more with local urban gardens and increasing the scale of produce grown in the container garden, and the Intergenerational Garden. The team plans to have an increased presence at the Marin City Market Day, where residents will be able to purchase produce grown in their own community and support the ongoing growth of the garden through sales.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Academy
Nevada Campus School Garden
There are 27 raised beds and numerous pots and grow bags in the three garden spaces located on the Nevada St. campus of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Academy. Each garden space is utilized by a different developmental age group, and collectively, serves over 200+ students a week. This year’s curriculum will focus on sustainable practices, such as regenerative gardening techniques and propagation of existing plants.
This year through the collaboration with MarinHEAL, the Nevada Campus team hopes to complete hardscape projects including renovating old garden beds, installing a poly-tunnel, replacing storage sheds, creating arbors, and updating the fencing and irrigation system. Some of these projects have already begun, thanks to a partnership with Farms to Grow, who completed an assessment of the three gardens. Through these garden improvements, the team aims to increase production capacity, and to supply more produce for the school nutrition program, along with neighboring community organizations.
Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Academy
Philips Drive Campus Garden
The Phillips Drive campus of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. Academy had a summer full of accomplishments. This includes becoming an approved vendor for the AIM Farmers Markets and two local grocers: Driver’s Market & Deli and Golden Gate Market. The first summer harvest resulted in over 200 pounds of onions, an average of 100-150 pounds of produce a week. Summer crop productions included sunflowers, onions, cauliflower, apples, pears, pluots, peaches, 15 tomato varieties, strawberries, eggplant, peppers, carrots, herbs, collard greens, okra, turnips, rutabaga, various lettuces/leafy greens, several varieties of kale, radishes, roses, zucchini, pumpkins, yellow squash, cucumber, and much more.
As change-makers, Marin County Cooperation Team (MCCT) has big dreams for the Garden. With 12 raised beds and a new irrigation system, the goal is to now build 200 raised beds, with hopes of becoming an official USDA farm. The team is working hard to implement a Youth Agriculture program in Southern Marin and build a greenhouse for the winter months. MCCT has plans to continue expanding produce sales, then recycling the profits back into the garden and community.