Community Garden Helps Those in Need

Produce for People, Murrieta’s community garden, has been providing fresh produce for hundreds of Murrieta residents since last year, yet most don’t know of its existence, let alone its benefits to the community.

“The garden provides fresh fruits and vegetables to those residents who are in need,” said Murrieta City Councilwoman Kelly Bennett, who volunteers her time. “All our harvests are donated to the local food pantries in the area”.

Some of the pantries include the Salvation Army in Murrieta, United Methodist Church of Murrieta and the Murrieta Senior Center. 

Nestled next to , the garden is overseen by the City of Murrieta and sustained by donations and volunteers; Rabobank donated the funds for the fencing surrounding the garden; Toro, a Riverside-based company, donated the irrigation system; Excel Landscape installed it.

Not only do the companies donate to the garden, employees volunteer their time.

“As a company we always try to invest not only money but our time to community programs like these,” said Jose Alfara Jr., project manager for Excel Landscape. A Murrieta resident himself, he stops by often to lend a hand.

Waste Management not only donated fruit trees but came out to plant them as well.  Volunteers from the Temecula Rotary Club and Project Touch also volunteer their time weeding, planting and harvesting the garden and 178 fruit trees on the 4 acres of land.

The idea was born in part from Heaven On Earth, another program to help local pantries. Councilwoman Bennett and Bob Kast, Parks Maintenance Superintendant for Murrieta wanted to know what the pantries needed the most.

“They all agreed that fresh produce was what was most needed,” said Bennett. “While not enough, canned goods last longer and are usually what is donated, fresh produce is hard to come by”.

Kast concurs, adding the summer months are especially tough for the pantries.  It’s hotter and children are out of school, both making the demand for food higher.

Only its second year, the garden is helping to meet the demand. 

“We aren’t even half way through this year's season and already we have harvested close to 150 pounds of food,” Kast said. This includes fresh corn, radishes, lettuce, tomatoes and zucchini.

Between August and November of last year, the garden yielded 1,207 cucumbers, 877 squash, 783 ears of corn, 178 cantaloupes and 3,760 cherry tomatoes. Along with an earlier start this year and the good weather, Alfaro is expecting the harvest to produce twice as much as last year.

Only in its sophomore year, the City plans on expanding and utilizing the four acres designated for the project, with the concept of the garden is broken into four phases. 

Phase one is the crops already planted, phase two entails raised planter boxes that they hope members of the public can rent or lease for their own use, with extra being sent to the food pantries. The third phase is a small park and an education stage to rest or to learn about the garden.

Phase four is expansion of the garden and orchard.

While the orchard was installed ahead of schedule, Alfaro insists it was more cost effective to install the trees in small, five-gallon pots to let them mature for three or four years as opposed to installing them in 15-gallon size and then having to wait for a year for them to start producing. He also believes that if the weather continues to cooperate, the orchard might be ready ahead of schedule.

“We not only have great people who donate, we have many volunteers who spend a lot of time making the garden what it is,” Bennett said. “We couldn’t do it without them."

“We are helping the community as a whole by helping the individuals in it," Kast said.

“In these economic times, everyone needs help and we can provide it from within our own community.”

Volunteer Kyle Bell understands the importance of the project and giving back. He came to help after hearing about it through Project TOUCH, a nonprofit that runs Temecula Valley Homeless Shelter and works within the community.

“I’ve been selfish all my life, but no matter what stage in my life I was or what mistakes I made, there was always someone there willing to help me,” Bellsaid. “It’s my turn to give back.”

While the garden gets help from local volunteers and the pantries themselves, help is always needed. Between March and November, there is an ongoing cycle of planting and harvesting and they expect this season they will be harvesting up to twice a week. 

For more information on the garden and how to become involved, whether it’s by donating or volunteering your time, contact Nancy Driggers, assistant to the City Manager, by email at ndriggers@murrieta.org or by telephone at 951-461-6008.