Harvest of Health

They arrive about sunset, as the oven-hot Pomona air starts to cool and the smog clears. Whoever gets there first unlocks the gate on the chain-link fence put up to keep out graffiti vandals, and the harvest begins.

Ester Zavala checks the ears of sweet corn growing on 8-foot-high stalks, while Savann Tim cuts off collard greens with a cleaver. Others trade growing advice or cooking tips while standing amid plots full of lemon grass, green beans, chiles, squash and tomatoes.

The urban gardeners are participants in the federal Women, Infants and Children program, which provides food vouchers and teaches principles of proper nutrition to low-income women who are pregnant or nursing, or who have children up to 5 years old.

Local officials began the garden project--the only program of its kind in California--three years ago to address a problem that had eluded conventional solutions. Caseworkers knew that many participants in the WIC program were not eating enough fruits and vegetables, but WIC food vouchers, which are redeemable for items such as milk, cheese and baby formula, cannot be used for fresh fruits and vegetables.

“Many of our participants cannot afford fresh produce, so we thought we’d see if they could grow their own,” said Gauri Rao, a nutritionist for Public Health Foundation Enterprises, a nonprofit agency hired to run WIC programs for many Southern California cities, including Pomona.

Rao said Cal Poly Pomona student interns spent nearly a year scouting vacant lots throughout the city for possible garden sites, and tracking down landowners through city records to find someone willing to lease a lot for a token amount.

After being turned down by several property owners, they came across the one-acre lot next to the South Hills Presbyterian Church, and were told that they could use the land free for five years.

The project’s organizers raised most of the $40,000 start-up money through private foundation grants, and Pomona officials helped them secure $3,500 in federal community development funds.

The money was used to put up a fence, build a storage shed and irrigation system, buy supplies, and pay the wages of two part-time staffers. The city of Pomona provides free water for the garden.

The garden opened in April 1996, and today serves 45 families. The program is advertised at three WIC offices in Pomona, and there is a waiting list to participate. Those on the waiting list usually get their own 15-by-15-foot plot within a few months, Rao said.

Carlos Barragan, a Cal Poly graduate student in plant science who has been advising the gardeners since the start of the program, said that very few participants drop out. Those who give up their plots do so mainly because they move out of the area, he said.

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Along with WIC participants, Barragan said a few plots were given to neighborhood residents. Barragan said the participation of a few neighbors was important for building community support.

When gang members spray-painted graffiti on the garden’s supply shed, for example, the gardeners from the neighborhood were able to find out who was doing it and persuade them to stop.

Rao said that from informal discussions with participants, she estimates that most have increased their vegetable consumption by about two servings per day. The garden program, however, has not had the money to conduct an evaluation. “Right now, our priority is to make sure the garden is operating,” she said.

Barragan believes that the garden project has nourished the community as well as individuals by beautifying the neighborhood and bringing residents together in a common enterprise.

“When we first started having meetings, the people wouldn’t talk to each other. The Asians, Mexicans, blacks and whites would stay by themselves. Now everyone’s very, very comfortable. It’s been an excellent way to break boundaries,” he said.