Learning Lots and Eating Well at the Guadalupe Community Garden

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Salud Heroes
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The Guadalupe neighborhood in Lubbock, Texas has seen some tough times. With many folks struggling to make ends meet, healthy eating has not always been a priority. As a result, obesity has been on the rise in children and adults. It took one determined Latina to get the community back to their roots of growing delicious, fresh foods. Lala Chavez partnered with a local university, her church, and ultimately the city to plant a community garden that would give the neighborhood with a space for learning, activities, and delicious tomatoes.

EMERGENCE

Awareness: Lala Chavez’s family has lived in the Guadalupe neighborhood for generations. A predominantly Latino community on Lubbock’s northeast side, the neighborhood has a history of poverty.

“My grandfather was the first one to actually have running water,” she recalled.
Chavez speaks fondly about old times when she would pick herbs and vegetables straight from her parents’ garden, but that hasn’t happened in a while.

“Since my father and my mother passed away…I wouldn’t grow anything at the house,” she said.

Chavez knew her family and the whole Guadalupe neighborhood community would benefit from growing their own fruits and vegetables, but she still needed a small push in the right direction.

Learn: Healthy Lubbock is a healthy living initiative of the Garrison Institute on Aging at Texas Tech University. In 2012, they received a Center for Disease Control (CDC) Community Transformation Grant to promote healthy living in community across Lubbock. They wanted to use the funds in a neighborhood that needed them, so the team did some research. They looked up neighborhood demographics though city-data.com and deemed Guadalupe neighborhood a good fit.

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The new community garden has transformed this vacant lot into a produce oasis.
Source: Get Fit Healthy Lubbock

“Most of the population is Hispanic, education attainment level is low, about 42% of the community has less than a high school diploma, and most of these folks are low-income,” said Veronica Molinar-Lopez of Healthy Lubbock.

Frame Issue: Before they approached the neighborhood association, they surveyed residents.

The survey asked questions like: How interested would you be in a community garden in the Guadalupe Neighborhood?; if you are interested, would you help in the garden?; if you could help in the garden how much time would you be able to volunteer each week?; and, if you couldn’t help in the garden, would you be willing to donate supplies?

“We wanted to make sure that the neighborhood would be interested in the garden,” Molinar-Lopez said.

The neighborhood expressed strong interest, survey results showed.

“Once we received the feedback we were able to go to the association,” said Molinar-Lopez.

Lala Chavez happens to be president of the Guadalupe Neighborhood Association.

DEVELOPMENT

Education/Mobilization: When the folks at Healthy Lubbock approached Chavez about starting a community garden in the Guadalupe neighborhood, she was thrilled.

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Rasied beds with some early sprouts poking up.
Source: Get Fit Healthy Lubbock

“Even if the association wasn’t interested in doing it…we, the neighbors, would do it anyway,” she said.

But when she brought the idea before the entire neighborhood association, everyone was interested. “We took the ball and ran with it,” she said.

First, the garden needed a home.

Chavez sought support from her church, St. Joseph’s, which has been a fixture in the Guadalupe neighborhood for 90 years.

“I spoke to Father Piña and told him what we wanted to do,” said Chavez.

St. Joseph’s Church is at the heart of this neighborhood, making it a natural meeting place, explained Raquel Gonzales who works at the church. “Without this community, there wouldn’t be this church,” Gonzales said, which is why they are always looking to give back.

Father Piña wanted to help, and suggested they plant the garden in a lot the church had recently bought just a block from the church. It was large, fenced-in, and able to be locked—all of which would be important garden elements, Chavez said. Chavez assured Father Piña she would keep him in the loop on all the garden happenings, and he was excited at the prospect of fresh fruits and vegetables growing for all neighbors to enjoy.

The garden would help infuse fresh fruits and vegetables into the local church congregation throughout the week, especially the elderly who can’t go to the grocery store as often, Gonzales said.

Debate: Next, the new gardeners planned detailed logistics for a garden.

“The whole neighborhood is a lot of caliche,” said Chavez.

Caliche is a type of rock that makes growing difficult. “So we decided to do eight raised boxes instead of just working straight from the ground,” she said.

The raised beds were filled with fertile soil that could support tomatoes, zucchinis, and more.
There were a few more obstacles to take on. Chavez and others hoped that the garden would be more than just a place to grow food, but a place where the community can gather and be together.

But the current landscape wasn’t so welcoming. “There were no trees, there was no shade, no benches or anything,” said Chavez.

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Shade trees were planted to give gardners a break from the Texas heat.
Source: Get Fit Healthy Lubbock

The Neighborhood Association decided to use grant funding to buy five shade trees and two picnic benches.

Another crucial element to any garden was also missing—water. The plot of land had no water line, and installing one was not cheap.

“That line was going to cost almost $4,000,” said Chavez, which is almost the amount of the entire grant from Healthy Lubbock.

At that rate, all the gardeners would be able to do was put in the water line; planting seeds and growing produce would have to wait.

But Chavez did not give up that easily.

ENACTMENT

Activation: A self-described community advocate, Chavez took the water dilemma to Lubbock City Hall. She met with her city council member, Victor Hernandez, and explained what she needed.

Hernandez then met with Thomas Harris, a council support staffer, to brainstorm solutions.
“They needed a waterline run from the city tap to the garden,” Harris explained. “They needed assistance to get the waterline dug and attached to the tap so that they could have water for the garden.”

While thinking about potential solutions, Hernandez and Harris reached out to the Keep Lubbock Beautiful Advisory Committee, one of the city’s boards and commissions. Keep Lubbock Beautiful gives funding to projects in Lubbock that help beautify the city.

After talking with the committee’s staff liaison, Hernandez helped get Chavez on a Keep Lubbock Beautiful meeting agenda. From there, it was up to Chavez to convince the group to help the neighborhood association fund the waterline.

Frame Policy: Because the Guadalupe Neighborhood Association is a part of the larger Lubbock United Neighborhood Association (LUNA), the board was already familiar with the Guadalupe neighborhood.

Chavez didn’t prepare too much in advance, she just brought a few notes and a lot of determination.

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Tomatoes began coming up in late summer 2013.
Source: Get Fit Healthy Lubbock

“I told them we needed to have this garden for the kids, to keep our culture going,” said Chavez.

They asked her questions about planning and garden upkeep, to which she replied that St. Joseph’s staff and congregation, the neighborhood association, and residents all were fully committed to the success and sustainability of the garden.

“What [is a] more healthy way to get our kids to eat good food than [planting a garden]?” Chavez asked them. She told them how they hoped to get more and more people involved, and that if they couldn’t afford the waterline, they would have to wait at least a year to raise more funds and garner more support. The health of her neighborhood couldn’t wait.

Change: Unanimously, right then and there, Keep Lubbock Beautiful voted to grant the neighborhood association the funds to help with the water line, removing the garden’s last barrier.

About five weeks after the vote, city water engineers installed the waterline for the Guadalupe Community Garden, costing the neighborhood association only $1,000.

On May 25, 2013, the neighborhood conducted a grand opening ceremony to celebrate the new garden and to plant the first seeds.

IMPLEMENTATION

Implementation: Today, the shade trees are growing and the benches provide a nice rest for busy gardeners. There’s even a shed to house tools.

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One of the delicious watermelons growing in the garden.
Source: Get Fit Healthy Lubbock

To the community’s delight, kids are a big part of the garden. They help with racking, shoveling, planting seeds—any garden task needed.

“They really enjoy it,” Chavez said.

With the first seeds planted in summer 2013, by October of the same year the garden already boasted a variety of delicious produce.

“We’ve got an abundance of zucchini, jalapenos, New Mexican hatch chilies,” said Chavez, also noting 16 watermelons and a handful of cantaloupe.

Equity: At the Guadalupe Neighborhood Garden, anyone can enjoy the produce.

“We don’t turn anybody away; it’s there for the community,” said Chavez.

Be it Chavez, her husband, or another gardener, someone takes bags full of garden-fresh jalapenos, tomatoes, and whatever else is ripe up and down the street almost daily to give to neighbors.

Sustainability: The neighborhood association pays the water bill for the garden, but Father Piña has generously said he would help out if needed to keep the garden going. They hope to install some rain barrels soon that will lower the cost of water.

Gonzales from St. Josephs says that in the spring, the church plans to use the garden to connect kids’ Sunday school lessons with what’s growing in the garden.

The neighborhood association is finalizing a program that lets kids paint their own plant holders and then plant seeds in them—a neat way to let the kids actually grow their very own plant, said Chavez.

Of course, there are some unavoidable hazards of running a garden.

“We did have a problem with a possum, he got one of our cantaloupes,” said Chavez.

Possums and all, when the grant ends in three years, Chavez is confident that the garden will continue to make a lasting impact in this tight-knit community.

This success story was produced by Salud America! with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The stories are intended for educational and informative purposes. References to specific policymakers, individuals, schools, policies, or companies have been included solely to advance these purposes and do not constitute an endorsement, sponsorship, or recommendation. Stories are based on and told by real community members and are the opinions and views of the individuals whose stories are told. Organization and activities described were not supported by Salud America! or the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and do not necessarily represent the views of Salud America! or the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

ABOUT THE PROGRAM

Salud America! The RWJF Research Network to Prevent Obesity Among Latino Children is a national program of the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. The program aims to educate researchers, decision-makers, community leaders, and the public in contributing toward healthier Latino communities and seeking environmental and policy solutions to the epidemic of Latino childhood obesity. The network is directed by the Institute for Health Promotion Research at the University of Texas Health Science Center at San Antonio.

For more information, visit http://www.salud-america.org.

By The Numbers By The Numbers

1

Supermarket

for every Latino neighborhood, compared to 3 for every non-Latino neighborhood

This success story was produced by Salud America! with support from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

The stories are intended for educational and informative purposes. References to specific policymakers, individuals, schools, policies, or companies have been included solely to advance these purposes and do not constitute an endorsement, sponsorship, or recommendation. Stories are based on and told by real community members and are the opinions and views of the individuals whose stories are told. Organization and activities described were not supported by Salud America! or the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and do not necessarily represent the views of Salud America! or the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.

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