Nearly 150 Volunteers Tend To South Bay School Gardens

REDONDO BEACH, CA — Nearly 150 volunteers from 30 South Bay organizations tended to school gardens in Hermosa Beach and Redondo Beach for Beach Cities Health District’s (BCHD) 4th annual Beach Cities Volunteer Day Thursday.

Volunteers, parents and students worked in 10 of BCHD's LiveWell Kids gardens, a program that works to prevent childhood obesity through hands-on gardening and nutrition lessons. Volunteers planted, harvested and weeded to prepare the gardens for the upcoming school year, the BCHD press release said.

To top it off, all harvested produce — including tomatoes, squash, lettuce, pumpkins and arugula to name a few — was donated to local food banks.

BCHD also honored volunteers who donated 100 hours or more of their time to the community during the event. The National Charity League was also awarded for their volunteerism as a partner in health, BCHD’s Youth Advisory Council member Amanda Costley was honored for her commitment to community in working on student health programming and Fred Naile with Redondo Beach Unified School District was awarded for his work in maintaining the school gardens year-round, the press release said.

"We’re in the business of producing the next generation of healthy students, and we’re lucky we have an army of more than 1,000 volunteers to help with this mission," said Beach Cities Health District CEO Tom Bakaly. "Our programs wouldn’t be effective without the help of our community, and we’re thankful for the overwhelming support we receive for our LiveWell Kids gardens and other programs."

LiveWell Kids was created in partnership with Redondo Beach Unified School District in 2005 in response to a high rate of obesity at the time — more than one of every five Redondo Beach elementary school students was obese, according to BCHD. Thanks to LiveWell Kids programming in Redondo Beach elementary schools, the obesity rate today has plummeted 68 percent, even though state and national numbers continue to rise, the press release said. Redondo Beach’s childhood obesity rate for Kindergarten through fifth grade students is now 6.4 percent, compared to 18.5 percent nationally.

When school starts again in the South Bay, the farm-to-table lessons, physical activity breaks and mindfulness practices will continue for more than 6,000 children by more than 500 BCHD volunteers. Programming is implemented in partnership with Palos Verdes School Gardens and the Redondo Beach Unified and Hermosa Beach City School Districts. Manhattan Beach partners with local organization Growing Great for its nutrition program.

For more information on LiveWell Kids programming, visit bchd.org/livewellkids.