Annual Harvest Festival 2022
OVGG's harvest festival is an annual event we throw for the community around Fall time. The harvest festival celebrates our last harvest of the year before we enter the winter dormant months. We want to center each harvest festival event around a theme that relates to environmental justice and climate change and an educational experience for all, and this year's theme centers around Native Plants and Community.
-Thi Vo; Urban Agriculture Specialist
This year’s harvest festival was another fantastic success! Community members and partners got together at Ocean View Growing Grounds to celebrate our harvest and learn more about our environmental justice learning hub.
Visitors got the chance to socialize, have some family fun and enjoy some delicious corn! Our community members were able to enjoy tours from our Program Director, asked garden specific questions to our Urban Agriculture Specialist, and learned more about the Young Envrionmental Justcie Academy from our very own youth ambassadors.
Our visitors also had the chance to talk with our partners at the San Diego Audubon to learn more bout native plants, San Diego Family Health Center for any questiosn related to their health insurance, and San Diego Continuing Education to learn more about the free resources available for further education.
The children who visited also had their fun painting pumpkins, eating delicious corn and fruits, and playing with the fun activities brought by the Inner City Athletic Program. They were also given a ‘passport’, in which they’d go to various educational locations at OVGG where our Interns and Fellows would teach them about the station and its importance.
Visitors entered the Growing Grounds through the main gate and under our pergola designed with growing grape vines and a repurposed piece of fence.
Our visitors were greeted by two of our fellows.
Our visitors were given a brief welcome with information on the garden and the youth were given 'passports' which included a scavenger hunt and a guide to attend the different educational stations around the garden.
Our guests were treated to a tour of the Ocean View Growing Grounds where our Program Director talked about the garden's history, demonstrations, stations, and the connections with our surrounding community.
Prepared with bell peppers, squashes, corn, and magazines donated by edible San Diego; our Urban Agriculture specialist was a great resource to all who brought their gardening questions.
Members from the San Diego Family Health Center joined us as a resource for our visitors. Our community members learned more about access to health insurance, the various resources available to them, and got there questions and issues answered.
A member from San Diego Continuing Education was a great resource to both adults and the youth. She made sure everyone learned about the easy access to the free educational benefits and courses available at the various community colleges in San Diego.
These two San Diego Audubon fellows answered all questions related to growing native vegetation, its benefits to San Diego, and informed guests about their organization.
The Ambassadors from the Young Environmental Justice Advocates Academy presented last year's zine, their final advocacy project with valuabel information on the issues of climate justice.
A member from the Inner City Athletic Program encouraged parents and youth to sign up to the program and learn more about health education.
Our visitors, staff, volunteers, and partners enjoyed some quality time together
Station 1: O2, CO2, and Fruit Trees. A fellow would teach the youth about our community tree orchid. She discussed the value of fruit trees, they provide us food and help clean our air.
Sation 2: Conservation- Native plants and seeds. Fellows from the San Diego Audubon taught about the benefits of planting plants native to San Diego including less water use.
Station 3: Mindfulness- Meditation Area Held in the succulent garden and guided by two students for the Partners at Learning Program at UCSD, the youth learned to appreciate where food comes from and the idea of meditating in a natural setting.
Station 4: Heat - YEJA Our YEJA ambassadors taught their fellow youth about the impact rising heat has on our crops.
Station 5: Food Forest An Intern taught the youth about how food forests support forest ecosystems, help retain water and improve air quality, and connect communities with nature.
Station 6: Community & Soil- Neighborhood Composting Food2Soils' compost area taught the youth abotu composting and how worms and community are the key for growing food.
Station 7: Physical & Mental Health- Inner City Athetic Program Visiting youth had the oportunity to learn about ICAP and even sign up to join their program!
Part of the Passport was a Scavenger Hunt which included Pumpkin decorating!
These pumpkins were donated by the Goff family Farm.
Here is a decorated pumpkin sitting on a completed 'passport'.
Taking home a succulent or tomato plant was the final prize for completing the passport.
Volunteers took charge of our kitchen
We took this opportunity to congratulate our volunteers Enzo Sachetti and Julia Murcko for helping us build our new Greenhouse!
One of our volunteers spent a long time cooking and preparing the delicious corn.
Our fellows worked hard to prepare thr growing grounds for all of our visitors.
Thank you to PB pumpkins for donating the pumpkins for our photo booth!
This year’s harvest festival was made possible by the work of The Global ARC Staff, the partnerships that have been made with the participating organizations, and members of the community surounding OVGG.
At the Ocean View Growing Grounds Environmental Justice Learning Hub Harvest Festivals are events for building relationships among community members.
It is through these relationships (also called Social Capital) that a community is able to create a common vision as well as agree on their issues and concerns in a way that allow individuals to work together in a group to effectively achieve a common purpose – a healthy community.
- Bill Oswald; Associate Executive Director for Research and Evaluation
Bringing together members of the community who volunteer with first time visitors who have seen the garden before but hadn’t had the chance to enter. Connecting them to participants/members of the Young Environmental Justice Advocates Academy and the Parent~Student~Resident Organization. Going further and connecting all community members to our partners and external resources. We aim to build a network of relationships that values the large variety of expertise, knowledge, and overall strengths to further improve quality of life.
Community residents are connecting to resources, learning and taking advantage of them all while keeping a connection to The Global ARC.
