The City of Manteca has identified the site for a possible community garden suggested by the Millennial Advisory Committee.
It has access to water, has some shade area, and even has nearby playground equipment where children could play while their parents tended to the garden.
The only question now is who is interested in forming a group effort to start growing food for the benefit of themselves and others working in such a garden or even fresh produce for those experiencing food insecurity in the community.
Mayor Ben Cantu on Tuesday pushed hard to have a city committee formed to guide the project.
But his council colleagues along with MAC committee member Scott Jorgenson noted the folly of having the city lead such an effort.
Jorgenson said due to the investment of time to make such a garden work as well as the desire to proceed was the reason the MAC didn’t want to assume that role. He noted the same was true of the Manteca Garden Club when he met with them given a community garden growing food didn’t fit into their current objectives.
The garden club, in the past, has worked closely with Sequoia School to launch a vegetable garden at the elementary campus. The pandemic suspended the school’s garden program.
The city is looking for those with an interest in pursuing a community garden by forming a non-profit group and securing the ongoing commitment to make it work.
Deputy City Manager Toni Lundgren said the civic center location was the top site among three staff identified as a possible community garden site.
She noted there are a number of apartment complexes near the civic center where residents that don’t have yards might be interested in being part of a community garden.
Ripon has a large community garden that involves a number of groups. One such organization that was part of the effort — the Oak Valley Youth Garden group — donated more than 800 pounds of produce to area food pantries between 2017 and 2019. In 2018, as an example, they donated 322 pounds of produce to two pantries — St. Vincent de Paul in Manteca and St. Patrick’s Food Pantry on Highway 120 between Ripon and Escalon.
Having outgrown their space at the community garden they started a one-acre garden behind Studio Joy on West Main Street in Ripon.
MAC would like to
see grass to food
conversion program
Jorgenson indicated the MAC group the council appointed to help find ways to make Manteca more appealing to millennials is advocating the city modify its turf replacement incentive program in a bid to reduce water use.
The MAC would like to see the program that pays residents to replace grass with landscaping that has less intense water needs to be used to support the conversion of residential lawn areas into vegetable gardens.
The MAC this past weekend also conducted a plant swap at the city’s civic center.
To contact Dennis Wyatt, email dwyatt@mantecabulletin.com
