Garden Provides Organic Produce to People With Less Access to Healthy Foods

Rohnert Park mom Beverly Hammond delivers fresh, organic produce to her neighbor Deborah Creech, 53, once a week — well, sometimes more, depending on what’s growing.

Hammond is the garden coordinator for the community garden tucked back behind Cross and Crown Lutheran Church in Rohnert Park, a job she does for free, to make sure low-income families or people with disabilities have access to healthy foods.

It’s because of Hammond’s weekly deliveries that Creech gets any fruits or vegetables in her diet, she said. A series of injuries rendered Creech permanently disabled, and most days she can’t muster the strength to get out of her house.

“I fell down the stairs and broke my back on Christmas Eve in 2001. When I fell, I couldn’t move, I couldn’t walk, ” Creech said. “Sometimes I feel like my life is over, I know that’s not true, I know I’m lucky to be alive, but sometimes I feel so isolated.”

Creech has a hard time walking and can’t stand for more than a few minutes at a time. She lives on food stamps, but it’s not enough to cover what she needs on a monthly basis. Fruits and vegetables are a luxury for her.

“Beverly has always been kind enough to share food with me. I can’t stand in line at the food bank, so most of the time it’s the only way I’m able to get fresh vegetables,” Creech said. “It’s made a huge difference for me. She’s helped build a sense of community.”

On a recent day, Hammond pulled a handful of beets from the garden. Right now, it’s all root vegetables and some greens growing. The garden is transitioning from growing winter vegetables such as carrots, squash, chard, snow peas and onions to summer produce, such as tomatoes and cucumbers.

“Everything is organic,” Hammond said, as she checked out a patch of arugula. “We feed six families in Rohnert Park with this food.”

Hammond is on a mission. She wants to expand the growing operation, run by herself and four volunteers, to feed five times as many families with fresh produce on a weekly basis.

“It’s important for communities to be self-sustainable, to be able to grow our own food and help people understand why it’s important to buy locally,” she said.

“But we’re such a small operation, we want to expand,” Hammond added.

Hammond is currently talking with people at St. John’s United Methodist Church, just north of Expressway on Snyder Lane in Rohnert Park, about expanding the operation.

“There’s a huge plot of land that’s not being used,” Hammond said. “I’d love to get to the point where we’re producing organic food, without chemicals or fertilizers, for 40 or 50 families a week.”

Hammond said she wants to get students from Sonoma State University and Ranch Cotate High who need community service hours to work with the farms.

“We’re looking in to sharing our land with [Hammond] to help make use of one of our assets,” said Heather Hammer, the reverend at St. John’s. “We’re always looking to help people in need, who don’t have resources like food.”

“Together, we can work on reducing the amount of waste we send out into the world, and reduce the amount of food we have to transport in,” Hammond said.

Editor's note: Are you following the "Spring is Sprung" series this week? Stay tuned for tomorrow's story about open space surrounding Rohnert Park.