Help us complete the Irrigation Project -  Improve Families' food supply @ Central's Garden + Orchard image

Help us complete the Irrigation Project - Improve Families' food supply @ Central's Garden + Orchard

Volunteer to help with the work of renewal, as well!

$4,567 raised

$12,000 goal

We are no longer accepting donations on this campaign, but there are other ways for you to support us today!
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We're getting there! Just a bit more to go on Irrigation, then on to Renovations!

We're getting there, but due to no fault of our own, our costs for the irrigation doubled, and we NEED your help!

We began in good faith with a landscaping contractor who promised both reductions in labor costs and donations of most of the parts we would need. He since had deaths in the family and his own injury so had to drop out, and the parts supplier dropped out. Both our sources disappeared when our trenches were already dug by volunteers and we were ready for work to begin!

So we went back to our wider community, and found a consultant who was willing to use his discount for parts, and volunteers who have been doing the hard work of installation alongside the consultant. Still, the parts ended up costing us as much as our original total budget, plus the Smart Controller for this large of a garden + orchard had to be re-configured from original projections because it had been undersized, and so our costs were higher. (video here shows the ORCHARD is done!)

WHAT CAN YOU DO?

Help us raise the money to pay the last costs for irrigation and timer materials, and for our consultant, who deserves fair compensation for several days of hard work with us in the heat, lots of miles driven (from Moreno Valley) including the side trips for parts at his discount, and willingness to wait for payment until we have funds in hand.

GIVE TODAY - whatever you can. We're so close, help us finish the irrigation, by September!


UPDATES:

We are incredibly grateful for all who have already given -

Especially our friends at Ascension Lutheran Church Foundation, Thousand Oaks, and several individual donors, some of whom dug deep financially, to help us dig in to bring controlled water to our gardeners for better crop yields and wise water management.

NOW we need help from others, as well, to finish this project strong. With your help today - we can use fall and winter to teach our Gardners how to use the new drip system for better crop yields starting now, and especially into next summer. We can introduce new crops for fall and winter temp's - something new to many of our gardeners - and substantially improve how they can feed their families. And as you know, almost all of our Gardners currently live at or below the poverty line, so every bite is important.

Our Smart Timer comes with its own built-in weather station at our site, and when programmed properly it adjusts to evaporation, humidity, rain and heat. Our microclimate in a valley wind tunnel makes for very challenging adjustments, and we need our garden to be responsive to our unique climate, thus this updated model was selected for our unique needs. We invested in the future of our gardeners so it can serve for many years ahead, and need your help to finish the job stronger.

THANK YOU EVERYONE for prayers, financial support and for volunteer hours invested!



Background from April 2021:

Did you KNOW that there's a half-acre Community Garden in Van Nuys, located at Central Lutheran Church, just 3 blocks from the Civic Center?

Did you KNOW that we have 34 Garden plots, and four teaching & demonstration areas to help TEACH FOOD SUFFICIENCY to families in our impoverished community?

Did you KNOW that creating an oasis in this densely populated second urban core of Los Angeles requires both a water management system (drip irrigation with smart timers), and significant renovations to cost-effectively fulfill its purpose?

YOU can SPONSOR garden renewal for part of a plot, for an entire plot or for several plots.

or You can VOLUNTEER labor to dig irrigation trenches, replace fence posts and re-install compost bins.

Starting now, we are asking for $250 per garden ($125/half, $65/quarter, or whatever you can afford) to bring our beautiful and diverse community garden to life.

Under the direction of a Master Gardener in Training (one of our own!), Central will be

  1. implementing improved water management through drip irrigation and smart controllers
  2. converting to organic integrated pest management to improve crop yields
  3. introducing practices designed to preserve soil health
  4. optimizing yields to feed more people
  5. reimagining the layout to engage more Gardeners

Volunteers can join the project on scheduled work days (or evenings) starting in May.

Collaborating with 340+ Master Gardeners, Central's Community Garden offers classes that "teach people to grow" a key strategy in food sufficiency. Bi-weekly Crop Swaps encourage sharing and diversifying the selection of produce bursting from this urban oasis. Classes and Crop Swaps will begin in July.