SAN DIEGO, Calif. – This Saturday, San Diego’s fast-growing free food movement is coming to City Heights with its biggest installation yet. The El Cajon Boulevard Business Improvement District and Eat San Diego are partnering to build an entire free food park. It will be the first of its kind in San Diego.
It started with a guy planting veggies at bus stops around San Diego—without asking for permission. Then it spread. Mixte Communications in Ocean Beach planted a free food garden in arm’s reach of the sidewalk, with a sign welcoming the public to pick and enjoy. Then community organizations and small businesses like the Newbreak Church, the Point Loma Association and Folk Arts Records did the same.
“This park is about community,” said Kelly Colt, cofounder of Eat San Diego and a City Heights resident. “Free food gardens offer us a chance to interact with our community in a totally different way. When you walk down the street and pick a fresh fruit or veggie from a shared community garden, that’s something special, something that causes a shift in how you think about your neighborhood. It stops being a place you live and starts to feel more like home.
“We want this garden to remind everyone that we’re all a part of this community, we can all find ways to contribute and make it a better place. Every small act of kindness makes a difference.”
The project is a partnership of the El Cajon Boulevard Business Improvement District, which has provided funding, supplies and land use, and Eat San Diego, the volunteer group born from fans of the first bus stop gardens, providing the labor, design and community organizing efforts.
This is absolutely incredible! I have been wanting to do this for a long time.