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Community and School Gardens in Marin County
Marin County's waitlists for community gardens can be up to four years long. Exacerbating that problem is the fact that it can take up to seven years to launch a new garden. Clearly, the demand for community gardening is not being met in the county.* The problem is complicated by the fact that there are eleven separate municipalities in Marin, in addition to the unincorporated county lands and 19 school districts.
Of the approximately 75 public schools in the county, 50 have school gardens, most of which have problems sustaining their school garden programs, particularly in the summer time, and particularly in the lower-income communities of the county. A well-supported comprehensive school garden program is an uphill battle considering this fragmentation, but steps are being made.
Despite the individual wealth in many of our cities, our low-income communities suffer from a significant health and income disparity. This disparity shows up in longevity rates: in the Marin municipality of Ross, the average longevity is 88 years, and in the Canal area of San Rafael, the average longevity is 77.4 years – a 10.6 year difference. In one area of Novato, the difference is even greater at 75.2, or 12.8 years.** A big part of the solution to this health disparity is access to better nutrition. For educational reasons, as well as actual produce production, community and school gardens are a part of the solution and can be an integral part of a healthy and active lifestyle.
The Canal Community Garden in San Rafael took nearly eight years to launch, getting approvals, raising money, and finally building. The process was like pulling teeth in large part because policies are not in place to streamline approvals, and little funding has been dedicated to the issue. Additionally, public awareness of the important benefits of community gardens is still low. Potential benefits include community resilience, improved health, environmental benefits, community building, outdoor education, reduction in crime rates, and savings on food bills.
Individual residents' objections are often ill founded, or gardens are misunderstood. Most community gardens now adhere to strict performance standards which prevent many of the problems that residents imagine. Both broader public awareness of the benefits, and streamlining city ordinances would help facilitate approvals. This is true despite the fact that many city officials try to champion these projects.
Mill Valley's, original community garden, for example, has a waitlist of more than 70 people; a several year wait. Although many city officials supported the idea of a second community garden, it has taken seven years to launch the second 38-bed garden. It is the exceptional case when a community garden is launched is less time. Often the shorter time period is because the land and/or water is privately owned by faith-based institutions or individuals, and in one case, a golf course!
Efforts coordinated by The Marin Food Policy Council (MFPC) and UCCE Marin took on this problem on a couple years ago. Their focus is on food security in lower-income communities. The county has 32 low-income schools, defined by 30% or more of their student body on the government program Free and Reduced Meal Program (FRMP). They developed templates for planners, commissioners, and city council members to list community gardens in zoning codes as a “permitted use”, and charged a UCCE Marin Community Garden Program Coordinator to identify and develop a map of potential sites for community gardens in the county, and “encourage garden management support through meet-ups, garden tours, and a conference.” The meet-ups and tours provide a place for the exchange of ideas and best practices. The Coordinator position also allows for a centralization of some of the school and community garden material and resource needs such as seeds, starts, tools, compost, mulch, via seed/tool libraries, banks, material yards, or simple donations. Countywide garden volunteer coordination is part of this effort as well.
The fragmentation in the county makes these efforts very challenging, but it is exciting to push forward Marin County Urban Ag in this way!
*Marin County Community Garden Needs Assessment, University of California Cooperative Extension, Marin. December 2010
**A Portrait of Marin: Marin County Human Development Report, 2012. (MeasureOfAmerica.org)
Marin “agent of change” Ellie Rilla retires from UC Cooperative Extension
“The best thing about Ellie is that she is inspirational,” said Marin County rancher Sally Gale. “She was the kind of leader that inspired you to try things.”
“If she put on a workshop on diversification, people listened. We did,” said Gale, who farms with her husband Mike raising grass-fed cattle and sheep and organically growing apples, pears and tomatoes. “The ag community loosened up and good things started – apple growing, cheese making, bed and breakfast businesses, U Picks, etc. I think she was an agent of change here for the good.”
The Marin native earned a B.S. in biology from California State University at Chico, then an M.A. in political science from Sonoma State University.
She served as the executive director at a nonprofit in Sonoma and had just completed a multi-year stream restoration project funding by the Coastal Conservancy working with ranchers along the Sonoma coast when she learned of the UCCE opening in Marin County.
“I was familiar with UCCE because I had worked as a 4-H volunteer for the Challenge Sonoma Adventure Ropes Course and had participated in 4-H as a kid,” Rilla said.
Rilla joined the university in 1988 as UC Cooperative Extension advisor and director in Marin County. She worked with farms to prevent water pollution and with the UC Master Gardeners to promote water conservation among homeowners. In 1997, she took a sabbatical to study agritourism and after David Lewis was hired as a UC Cooperative Extension advisor specializing in water issues in 1999, Rilla turned her focus to community development through agritourism. She published the book “Agritourism and Nature Tourism in California,” which sold out and a second edition was published in 2011.
In 2010, she stepped down as UC Cooperative Extension county director to devote her time to community development in the North Bay Area.
“Ellie was very popular here in her job as director because she was sincerely interested in all of us and wanted the ag community to succeed as a whole,” Gale said. “She could see the big picture: our proud history, our struggle with meat and milk prices, our need to specialize and to define our niches, to market, to get into the farmer's markets, to set local organic standards, to communicate who we are and what we do for the environment and food supply.”
Over her career, she brought in 75 grants for various projects totaling $9 million.
“My activities and accomplishments are focused on providing local farmers and ranchers with diversification strategies,” said Rilla. “I hope this strategy will result in greater market and brand recognition for North Bay products in increased profitability, and ultimately, in long-term preservation of local agriculture. Like other agricultural areas operating along the urban-rural fringe, the viability of agriculture is at stake here.”
From 1994 to 1999, Rilla served on the board of Select Sonoma County, the first county-based marketing program in the U.S. and has been active in local branding and marketing programs including the start up of Marin Organic in 2000.
To help local farmers with branding and marketing, Rilla created the Grown in Marin program. Using grant money, she held training workshops and hired an agriculture ombudsman to help farmers promote their products. The Grown in Marin website hosts a complete listing of Marin producers and where to find their goods, current articles and press relating to sustainable agriculture, a regularly updated events calendar, historical profiles of Marin County agriculture, archived "Grown in Marin" newsletters, workshop listings, and a variety of other useful resources.
“She listened to us too,” said Gale, who recalled that after someone opined that cheese was the future, Rilla brought together people who were interested in making cheese. In 2010 she helped develop an artisan cheese certificate program at College of Marin’s Indian Valley campus. In 2011 she coauthored the book “Farmstead and Artisan Cheeses: A Guide to Building a Business.” Rilla was also involved in creating the Sonoma-Marin Cheese Trail map, which was recently featured in the New York Times and Los Angeles Times and has generated worldwide interest in the region’s products.
“I am most proud of that fact that our Cooperative Extension office is seen as a first resource for UC knowledge and information, and that I’ve had the opportunity to act as a creative conduit between UC and my community helping to solve real and pressing problems,” Rilla said.
Fair exhibit a tribute to Marin's first advisor
M.B. Boissevain, who became a UCCE advisor in 1920, took approximately 500 photos of Marin agriculture and its people during his 30-year career. Ellie Rilla, UCCE advisor in Marin County, and David Lewis, UCCE director and advisor in Marin County, assembled an exhibit of 74 of his photos that was on display at the Marin County Fair June 30 – July 4.
Lewis and Rilla have also written a book, “Marin Agrarian Roots,” about the agricultural history of the county based on Boissevain’s photos and farm reports.
Pictures for Edible Magazine!
We are looking for a really great photo from the first day of class to submit for a publication being done in Edible Magazine! If you have a picture you took on the first day of class please e-mail it to Linda or myself, or even post on the FaceBook Page.
Your picture could be selected for the article!
Due date is April 15th
Below is a link to an online copy of the magazine to look at:
http://www.ediblecommunities.com/marinandwinecountry/online-magazine/
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Novato garden project gets complicated
Developing a community garden in Novato is proving more complicated and costly than expected, but local organizers are pressing forward with their plans, according to an article in the Marin Independent Journal.
The garden, which will contain 50 to 80 garden plots, is proposed by the non-profit organization Novato Live Well Network. Initially, the group thought expenses for the project would amount to $25,000. However, the price tag has swelled to $220,000 to $250,000.
Reasons cited in the article for increased costs include:
- The city of Novato's fiscal problems preclude it from assisting with infrastructure and waiving fees
- Compliance with the Americans with Disabilities Act is making the design more expensive
- North Marin Water District announced a 2009 moratorium on new connections. The Novato Live Well Network found a contractor to help them drill an 80-foot well on the property
Project supporters say the community garden would allow Novato residents to grow their own food and make better nutritional choices. A percentage of plots will be offered to low- or moderate-income households, and plot fees will be charged on a sliding scale. "Community gardens open up the opportunity for community members to garden, and improve health factors, making them more active and getting them to eat more fruits and vegetables," the story quoted Mark Bauermeister, the UC Cooperative Extension Master Gardener coordinator in Marin County. "If they're managed correctly, they can be beneficial for the environment, encourage community interaction and beautify the neighborhood." Late last year, Bauermeister, Marin environmental horticulture advisor Steven Swain and Marin community development advisor Ellie Rilla completed a Marin County Community Garden Needs Assessment. UC Cooperative Extension will host a day-long Community Garden Summit April 29 at San Rafael's Pickleweed Community Center, the article said.
Native plants on display at an existing Marin County community garden.
