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CSUB receives $50,000 gift to expand Edible Garden

CSUB partnering with Adventist Health, Grimm Family Education Foundation

By California State University, Bakersfield

September 20^th, 2021

Adventist Health Bakersfield and the Grimm Family Education Foundation have provided a $50,000 gift to California State University, Bakersfield to help expand and improve its Edible Garden.

The gift will fund upgrades to the garden’s irrigation systems and landscaping as well as the installation of wash stations and awnings. It will also allow CSUB to plant more seeds as well as purchase new tools, equipment and materials.

A ribbon-cutting ceremony at the Edible Garden was held earlier today to celebrate the gift.

One of the main goals of the donation is to help the one-acre garden, located behind the softball field in the southeast corner of the campus, better address food insecurity among students as well as faculty and staff.

Previous studies estimate as many as 40% of the campus population faces food insecurity.

“We feel great about this gift,” said Victor Martin, vice president for University Advancement and executive director of the CSUB Foundation. “I think it’s an important step forward to addressing food insecurity and edible education, which is a priority for us at the university. This gift will help CSUB serve as a hub in this world of edible education and addressing food security.”

RJ Valentino, president of the Grimm Family Education Foundation, said the gift represents a commitment to improve health outcomes in Kern County.

“This is a partnership that demonstrates the willingness of three organizations to come together for the benefit of the community,” Valentino said. “I think it’s going to be a great opportunity and that this will be a great success for the students and the community.”

The donation is part of Adventist Health's effort to help residents establish a foundation for lifelong health, said Kiyoshi Tomono, vice president of partnership for Adventist Health Bakersfield.

“Our interest in this really is well-being,” he said. “Our hospitals are acutely aware of the fact that health care needs to move out of the ‘we’ll wait until you have a heart attack’ method of treatment and focus on prevention. We need to do more in the work we are doing to help people be well. That’s our intent with this investment. This is part of a long-term strategy.”

Adventist Health has partnered with the Grimm Family Education Foundation since 2019, including on the launch of a mobile kitchen classroom as part of the foundation’s Edible Schoolyard program.

Then, when COVID-19 struck last year, the foundation converted the Buena Vista Edible Schoolyard into a small farm that donated all produce to CSUB’s Food Pantry. That successful partnership with the university led to discussions about expanding the Edible Garden.

“When COVID hit, we really started focusing on food insecurity issues in Kern County and Bakersfield,” Valentino said. “We saw an opportunity with the program that CSUB had and thought this would be a great way to help address the issue.”

'On the cutting edge'

The Edible Garden was established in 2016 to help address food needs on campus. Since then, the garden has produced thousands of pounds of food that is delivered to the CSUB Food Pantry. Just this calendar year, more than 3,000 pounds of food was provided to the pantry.

The garden produces a variety of vegetables, including tomatoes, onions, squash, bell peppers, carrots and corn.

“It’s a really great way for our students to be able to access healthy food in a way that’s affordable,” said Jason Watkins, assistant director of basic needs at CSUB. “We know healthy food is expensive, and for students on a budget, that’s even more problematic, so any way we can address that and alleviate that is important.”

Associated Students, Inc. President Stephanie Magaña began working at the Edible Garden around two years ago when she was a student assistant in the sustainability department at CSUB. She ended her work with the garden this summer.

“It’s been amazing to see how fast this garden is growing,” she said. “It’s something I’m very proud of and was glad to be a part of.”

Magaña said she’s excited about the visibility the gift from Adventist Health Bakersfield and the Grimm Family Education Foundation will give to the garden.

“It hasn’t gotten the attention it deserves,” she said. “It’s already provided so much to students with the resources we have now, so adding more resources is just going to bring in so much more opportunity to the garden. Now is now a great time for the garden to have its spotlight.”

Sustainability Coordinator Jennifer Sanchez, who has helped oversee the Edible Garden since 2018, said the gift will not only have an impact on CSUB but also the other CSU campuses.

“Working together with our new partners is going to bring our university to a whole new level when it comes to basic needs,” she said. “What CSUB is doing with the Edible Garden is really on the cutting edge of what other campuses are talking about and hoping to implement, so I think that’s really significant.”

Reaching full potential

The Grimm Family Education Foundation is working with CSUB staff — including Joel Kirksey, a new year-round coordinator for the Edible Garden — to implement the upgrades to the garden and lend their expertise.

Valentino said the goal is to get planting done quickly this fall so there will be a bounty of produce early next year. Infrastructure upgrades are expected to be completed within the next couple of months, he said.

While this gift focuses mostly on infrastructure needs, it is just Phase 1 of a larger pledged commitment to eventually transform the garden into a year-round edible education program.

Beyond just meeting the immediate food needs of students and employees, the goal is to get to a point where CSUB can begin educating students at the garden on how to make healthy meals at home.

While the university doesn’t have all of the funding secured for this second phase yet, Martin said the plan is to start off with a mobile teaching kitchen where CSUB students could participate in cooking demonstrations and receive information on how to prepare healthy recipes.

The aim is to eventually have a permanent facility built near the garden, which has three quarters of an acre set aside for future development.

“We want the garden to serve as a hub where we can build a consortium of sorts around edible education and addressing food insecurity issues,” he said. “We want to work together in partnership with other folks across the county so we can make this a priority.”

The partners envision the Edible Garden developing to a point in which children could come explore the garden and participate in demonstrations at the teaching kitchen.

The ability to have children interact with the garden would assist in Adventist Health’s goal of improving the health outcomes of Kern County residents, Tomono said.

“This idea that you can work with kids at this young age, expose them to food and cooking and nutrition they may not otherwise be exposed to is amazing,” he said. “We have the ability to set a foundation for lifelong health and well-being for kids.”

The opportunity to have a long-lasting impact on people’s health was one of the main reasons the Grimm Family Education Foundation wanted to partner with CSUB on the Edible Garden, according to Valentino.

“It’s a gift that has the potential for long-term survival here in Kern County,” he said. “The focus is on creating these sorts of opportunities that have long-term impacts. It’s really important to have sustainability and longevity so that you can have an impact that is really meaningful.”

Martin said he hopes the gift will inspire other donors to come forward to support the Edible Garden.

“We have great partners starting this foundation,” he said. “The direction in which we’re moving is to bring other partners on to expand this, to fully realize the potential of this garden, not only in what it can produce but the education and curriculum that can be developed around it. The possibilities are limitless.”

CSUB receives $50,000 gift to expand Edible Garden

CSUB receives $50,000 gift to expand Edible Garden

CSUB receives $50,000 gift to expand Edible Garden

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Footnotes

Story by Joseph Luiz, writer/marketing and communications specialist; Photos by Juan Rodriguez, photographer/videographer

FootNotes

Story by Joseph Luiz, writer/marketing and communications specialist; Photos by Juan Rodriguez, photographer/videographer

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