Community Services

Community Garden Promotes Healthy Choices

Several years ago, community members and employees at White Memorial Medical Center in Boyle Heights have joined together to form Proyecto Jardín (Community Garden). Through combined efforts they have converted a vacant lot owned by WMMC into a vegetable garden.

	Dr. Krochmal

Robert Krochmal M.D., along with Pastor Archie Tupas, Director of the Los Angeles Development and Relief Agency (LADRA), a local affiliate of Adventist Community Services, created Proyecto Jardín to be a positive influence and reveal our Creator through nature to the inner city neighborhood surrounding White Memorial.

Creating a community garden in an urban setting provides a focal point for neighborhood beautification. It provides desperately needed space where individuals can find common ground in a safe, inspiring environment. The garden produces opportunities for children to discover freshly grown vegetables, make more nourishing food choices, and feel healthier.

"We believe that inspiring a curiosity and respect for the natural world will build healthy communities in the larger context of the health of our planet. This in turn will draw bring people closer to God," said Pastor Tupas. LADRA is a community-based, non-profit organization established for humanitarian and developmental purposes to serve the needy.

Residents, WMMC physicians and employees have often volunteered on Sundays for the "workdays," during which weeds are pulled, garden plots made, and soil and compost mixed. Students of Bride Street Elementary School even built an adobe shed from clay and weeds on the property. The adobe shed houses seeds, tools, journals, and other miscellaneous items.

Vegetables are harvested on an on-going basis. So far, lettuce, corn, squash, cabbage, beets, cilantro, and tomatoes have been planted. The vegetables grown at Proyecto Jardín are shared among those who have worked in growing them.

Proyecto Jardín is coordinated by volunteers from the community, in collaboration between White Memorial, LADRA, Bridge Street Elementary School, local organizations, and Adventist church groups.

"The basis of the garden is nurturing the local community. Gardens foster community spirit, cultural and artistic expression, and healthy environments by building bridges among groups," says Dr. Krochmal. "By creating gardens with their own hands, young people experience deeper understandings of nature and catch a glimpse of the Creator of all things."