By Dianne Anderson

Straight from city plot to plate – nothing beats local organics.

Local kids and families are working the land, now in full bloom without pesticides.

Ms. Sheila G. said that her nonprofit Adventures to Dreams Enrichment gave away bags of produce earlier this month filled with carrots, tomatoes, lots of different varieties of jalapeno peppers, and plenty of celery.

Whenever they have excess supply, they give it away on the third Friday of each month.

“I turned 10,000 square feet into this garden oasis. I haven’t bought produce in two years now from the stores,” said Grantham, former preschool owner. “Kids come two Saturdays a month, they plant the seeds and we take care of them. We use natural organic materials.”

Mostly, her youth comes from LBUSD, and she is continuing their second year of art camp, which runs until August 1. Currently, she serves about 50 to 60 kids.

“It’s free to kids that attend Long Beach Unified School District. If they don’t attend, I try to discount it as much as possible for parents,” she said.

But also growing nearby is a homeless camp across the fence on the Los Angeles County side, which has been a concern. City departments told her their hands were tied to address the issue, so she took it upon herself to attend a recent Los Angeles Board of Supervisors meeting. She waited all day, but finally got to speak.

That area of the county and of the city of Long Beach is part of Board Supervisor Janice Hahn’s district.

“She was extremely receptive, I told her what was going on, and what I’m doing, and immediately she connected me with her assistant. This morning at 6:45, I got a call and her team is going out this week,” she said.

In working with local parents, Grantham had brought in a gardening consultant to explain how the garden grows, something that she said the kids were already familiar with.

“When they come on Saturdays, we start planting and there are hands-on activities, they learn about seeds, different types of composting or different soils. Everything in the morning is always about hands-on opportunities in the garden.”

Other smart small landowners are also beginning to see the value of sharing space for food production, for those that want to work the land year-round for family and friends.

Long Beach Organics rents out its 10×10 plots for people to work and grow their own for $10 a month, half of which goes for farming maintenance. The only requirement is that the people must actually grow their organic gardens.

“I always tell them that it’s the opposite of a gym, if you rent a plot you have to grow, if you go to the gym, they don’t care if they ever see you again,” said Joe Corso, garden director the nonprofit Long Beach Organic, Inc.

In all, they have 250 accounts across nine locations totaling about 2.5 acres. He said there is also a good demographic mix, with about 22% of participants identifying as Black.

The organization started in 1994 under Charles Moore, a strong environmental focus on urban farming and clean soil.

Depending on how active local gardeners, the 10×10 plot produces fresh vegetables all year long, usually with enough salad greens and tomatoes to feed themselves and their neighbors. Month to month, California yields different produce, but whatever is in season, he said something tasty is always cropping up.

As part of their internship program, he has larger designated “giving gardens” where CSULB college volunteers help manage produce designated for food banks and at the main recipient campus pantry. He said it is a good fit.

“We have students from university and food is going to the university. Food insecurity of college students is surprising, they help meet that need,” he said.

This past year, his other big push is for their new garden, 15,000 square feet, which he feels might be his best design yet because it is ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) compatible. The garden is located at 3121 Long Beach Blvd.

“From day one, I’ve put the emphasis to be open for all abilities. We have some raised and ground-level beds, and a huge giving garden. We have 30 ground-level plots for the handicapped. Gardening already started, but we’re still building amenities,” he said.

That vacant lot comes by way of an owner who felt stuck because there is an oil well that has been used, but not yet capped, which he said makes the property not attractive to build on.

“But we tested the soil, they said the soil is so clean you could build a school on it,” he said.

If the idea of the carbon-footprint benefit of urban farming is not motivation enough, he said the city of Long Beach adopted the Urban Agriculture Incentive Zone Program, giving landowners a big tax break if they allow the property to be used for agriculture.

He had been talking to the landowner for eight years, but said it was the tax break that finally put her over the edge. The owner went from paying over $5,000 in annual property tax to $120.

She also doesn’t have to maintain the property.

“The city of Long Beach charges an empty lot tax, she doesn’t have to pay that we get a garden, the gardeners get to grow food, the community gets a nice green space to look at. It’s all win-win,” he said.

For more information, see  https://adventurestodreams.org/

and https://www.longbeachorganic.org/