Community Giving Program provides free produce for West Sacramento food-insecure communities
Gerardo Zavala posted: "Thursdays at Three Sisters Garden's small urban farm on the corner of Fifth and C Streets in West Sacramento are for preparing batches of produce to be distributed on Fridays as part of the nonprofit organization's Community Giving Program. Several sta" Daily Democrat
Thursdays at Three Sisters Garden's small urban farm on the corner of Fifth and C Streets in West Sacramento are for preparing batches of produce to be distributed on Fridays as part of the nonprofit organization's Community Giving Program.
Several staff members and youth volunteers meet at the farm on Thursday mornings to help pack an assortment of vegetables grown at the farm. The produce provided changes every season and is slightly different every week, according to Farm Manager Katrina Burce.
This week, the green bags used to distribute the produce contained kale, lettuce and carrots.
Three Sisters Gardens Farm Manager Katrina Burce packs carrots into a bag Thursday, Jan. 4, 2023, in West Sacramento. (Gerardo Zavala/Daily Democrat)
The program was created to target specific communities in West Sacramento's Bryte and Broderick neighborhoods who are food insecure.
Alfred Melbourne, owner and operator of Three Sisters Gardens, said one of the communities his program helps the most is an affordable housing complex called Las Casitas located along Lighthouse Dr. in the northeast corner of town right next to one of Melbourne's urban farms.
"We had already been giving (food) to them through our free farmstand that we had there," Melbourne recounted. "But it's been more intentional for us doing the Community Giving Program going door-to-door and collecting some information."
He explained that some information the nonprofit gathers includes family sizes so that they know how much food to bring people during future giving days.
According to Melbourne, the program currently helps roughly 50 families with about 45 of them residing in the Las Casitas area.
Additionally, the program gives Melbourne's young staff and volunteers a lens into the hardships created by food insecurity and helps create future leaders who will continue addressing these issues in the future.
"We need strategies to enforce our current food supply and food system," he emphasized. "This just gives us more opportunities to have our trainers become leaders, training the community with the philosophy of 'showing our community how to fish rather than giving them a fish.'"
"Our goal is to inspire and empower at-potential youth and at the same time inspire and empower each other by building connections with interns, volunteers and some folks from around the community that come out and see what we're doing," he said. "We never thought that we could grow enough to feed everybody, but we can create a model right here near our state's capitol to show folks how they can continue to build similar models in their communities."
Samuel Ramos, 20, said he started working at Three Sisters Gardens four years ago as a volunteer and eventually worked his way up to a paid position as a farm hand. Ramos said he was shy when he first started and never expected to be in a position where he was teaching people valuable skills.
"I've taken the youth classes to farm tours and taught them about irrigation, plant life and pests," he said. "I ended up teaching people here, which is something I did not see myself doing, especially when I started."
When speaking about the giving program and hosting farm stands, Ramos said he's happy to see the appreciative looks on people's faces.
"I can (see) in the people's faces how appreciative they are of a free bag of organic vegetables that they're going to feed their family with," he emphasized. "It definitely humbles me and makes me appreciate the job."
Carl Wesley Richardson, 22, started volunteering with the nonprofit in 2019 and said he didn't know much about growing plants or how to talk to other people.
He explained that many people in the Las Casitas complex are unable to shop for their own groceries because of age or other health issues, and he appreciated the help the nonprofit provides them.
"And when we have our skill shares here, I like being able to teach people even the simple things that I know now," he continued. "I've learned them over the last four years and that's something I really like sharing."
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