Our Projects
SDGE Environmental Champions Grant 2024-2025
Knowing that health is directly impacted by our access to green spaces and fresh produce, neighborhoods, families, and communities are taking it into their own hands to learn how to cultivate urban green spaces themselves in efforts to increase access to locally grown produce. Southeast San Diego communities of color are multi-generational refugees with an instilled understanding of the importance of learning how to grow and prepare fresh produce.
In collaboration with Berry Good Food Foundations Seeds for the Future project, this project responds to local community leaders and organizations working with aforementioned communities who are seeking resources and guidance on how to begin urban gardens and green spaces by providing workshops on locally strategic ways to grow or start urban green spaces. In addition, this project provides permanent gathering space at OVGG for Southeast San Diego CBOs, partners, and community members to connect with resources and environmentally focused organizations. We will be working with several community-based organizations, refugee and immigrant groups who seek to learn how to grow culturally and climate relevant crops to start their own small businesses, or to feed their families and communities, promoting a more culturally and climate relevant, healthy lifestyle.
With OVGG’s connection to Southeast San Diego and Berry Good Food Foundation’s connection to local networks and partners with environmental and food focused organizations, we will be able to weave together existing networks of resources and communities for a more food and climate resilient Southeast San Diego.
Community Cook - Along
Through the support of Whole Foods Foundation, Berry Good Food Foundation’s Chef Christina Ng has partnered up with Ocean View Growing Grounds to host a variety of cook-along workshops where residents of Southeast San Diego share their recipes on what healthy cuisine means to them and their culture. These workshops emphasize that healthy eating is culturally relevant, celebrating the diverse culinary traditions of our communities. Each session features at least one star crop grown locally in San Diego, ensuring that not only are these dishes nutritious but they also support local agriculture, while showcasing climate relevant crops. Join us in these interactive cook-alongs to explore and enjoy right flavors of San Diego’s culturally and climate significant cuisine!
Interested in our next workshop? Check out our Instagram page!
Greenhouse
Our new greenhouse has extended our growing season to cultivate a wider variety of plants, supporting our community partners to grow foods from their home countries that have cultural significance and are difficult to find here in San Diego. The greenhouse is a space to cultivate and share these crops, supporting our mission to increase accessibility to culturally relevant crops. Additionally, the greenhouse significantly increases our capacity to grow seedlings that we share with community members increasing their capacity to grow their produce.
Kitchen
With the help of volunteers, members of an engineering club at UCSD, and our landscpae specialist, Omar Guerra, the kitchen is now up and running!
Complete with cabinets, a sink, roof, and grill, this space at OVGG has opened up more possibilities for cooking healthy foods using the garden’s produce. Members of our communities have enjoyed a variety of food during our regular volunteer hours, events, and workshops! Some of these include our lovely volunteer Fany’s elotes and her famous venezuelan style arepas, our garden staff’s creative tortillas with edible flowers form the garden, and so much more to!
Stay tuned for the cookling classes we’ll have in the future!
