GONZALES — A beautiful Saturday morning was the setting for the Gonzales Youth Council’s Community Garden Day in Gonzales.
According to Jessica Olmeda of the City of Gonzales and co-adviser to the Gonzales Youth Council along with Cindy Aguilar, the community action project not only included garden activities but also an upgrade to the local food pantry.
“The food pantry had been located at Central Park and really needed to be replaced,” Olmeda said. “The Youth Council took on the project of creating a new food pantry and did the groundbreaking on the new site at the community garden. With help from the City of Gonzales maintenance staff, the Youth Council helped paint the new food pantry. The Youth Council worked very hard on the food pantry project and setting up the activities along with community partners. We are proud of their hard work.”
The new food pantry is in front of the Gonzales Community Garden on the corner of Elko Street and Fairview Drive. The food pantry was created for the community, with the hope that it will continue to be supported and sustained by the community.
Offering support to the Youth Council were community partners: Live Well, Salinas Valley Health, Save the Whales, Salinas Valley Recycles and RCDMC (Resource Conservation District of Monterey County), and members of the Gonzales High Interact Club.
While there were lots of weeding and general cleanup Saturday at the community garden, the community partners were also available with information regarding recycling, maintenance of the garden and other educational resources and hands-on activities.
Jaime Gonzalez-Canon of RCDMC spoke about the projects he is working on at the first phase and second phase of the Gonzales Community Garden.
“At this time we are planting milkweed and other plants that could attract Monarch butterflies as they make their travels to the north,” Gonzalez-Canon said. “We could possibly be a midway point for the butterflies as they continue their travels.”
Tony Vargas, the organizational well-being coordinator for the Live Well Project of Salinas Valley Health, spoke about the programs that Live Well provides to the City of Gonzales and beyond.
“We provide healthy activities here in Gonzales, including physical activities like a hike, a walk for health and a cooking demo,” Vargas said. “We will be attending another community garden project this month at Natividad Park in Salinas, and on April 8 we will host a cooking demo in Gonzales.”
