Each Green Corner
Fighting Food Insecurity With Community-Grown Garden Produce
Blooming shrubs and grapevines climb the chain link fence of Arroyo School’s garden plot, muffling noisy rounds of lunchtime basketball. Inside the enclosure, 4th and 5th graders study plants, filling out garden journal entries noting seedling progress. Fennel and mint scent the lush living campus, where students learn how to grow and care for plants that will nourish them and their community.
The seeds for Each Green Corner (EGC) germinated with CEO and Founder Sandie Zuniga Nierenberg in 2018. Sandie searched for ways to connect excess produce from urban gardens with residents experiencing food insecurity.
“When we garden at home, we’re often growing more than a single family can consume,” she says. “How can we divert the produce people are growing and help connect them with neighbors and community members who really need it.”
The community has enthusiastically embraced EGC’s mission with about 500 volunteers filling 900 shifts last year. Every other month, the bounty gathered during backyard harvest days provides Samaritan House of San Mateo County and Second Harvest of Silicon Valley with a variety of nutrient-filled, just-picked fruits and veggies.
“Community Foundation of San Carlos support has opened pathways for EGC to partner with other funders like the San Mateo County Sustainability Department and Sequoia Healthcare District. ”
EGC’s Senior Garden Steward partnership with Villages of San Mateo County helps local seniors grow produce at home and share it with the community. From a San Carlos Farmers’ Market booth, EGC engages with shoppers about food waste and food security, regularly gathering one hundred pounds of produce from vendors at the end of the day for donation.
But, most of Each Green Corner’s impact is made by its 16 community sites, most of which are pockets of unused or neglected land on school campuses. When the Arroyo School garden is harvested, it averages ten to twenty pounds of produce, providing field-fresh food donations. The community sites, combined with food diversion efforts, have gathered an impressive amount of food. In 2023, 4,900 pounds were donated, and the organization has already collected 3,000 pounds this year.
AmeriCorps member Noah Evans, a recent graduate with an environmental science degree and a master gardener, is a food systems educator with EGC. She oversees garden sites, creating lessons and curriculum to involve students and the community in garden projects—a key factor to a thriving community garden.
Noah teaches her students a garden bed planting strategy: two food crops for harvesting, one herb as a soil replenishing understory, and one flower to bring in the pollinators. A single bed might have fragrant snap pea vines, wild onion, orange marigolds, and cucumbers cropping up at once.
“The kids implement the garden knowledge they learn here in their home gardens so they can have food that they produce at a more successful rate, too,” Noah enthuses. “They’ll say, I pruned my blueberries, and now they’re doing well, or I put out pollinators to attract birds, and now the slugs aren’t eating my beans anymore!”
Adults are also welcome to help out in the garden. On monthly weekend workdays, anywhere from 15 to 30 people volunteer their time to dig in the dirt, get some sun, and participate in the community. Parents and teenagers work alongside each other with groups like the Young Men’s Service League and the National Charity League.
Between 2020 and 2023, the Community Foundation of San Carlos has made six grants to Each Green Corner totaling $42,500. The first grant helped EGC get off the ground and create outdoor classrooms at two San Carlos elementary schools during the pandemic. The most recent grant funds are helping EGC continue community food system education, address local food insecurity, and fund ongoing programs and staffing.
The Community Foundation of San Carlos support has opened pathways for EGC to partner with other funders like the San Mateo County Sustainability Department and Sequoia Healthcare District. On firm soil, EGC is the recipient of organic compost donated by Webb Ranch, wood chips from local arborists, and nutrient-rich soil made possible by a generous discount from Lyngso.
Each Green Corner has experienced explosive growth, starting with just one garden in 2018 to an endless waitlist of community sites wanting to install gardens. Additional funding would help EGC onboard more food systems educators like Noah and keep up with demand by adding at least two new gardens a year.
Reflecting on how her idea for Each Green Corner has grown, Sandie considers the students’ lunchtime participation and passionate engagement in Arroyo School’s garden. “There are all of these little impacts we didn’t think about. We grow food, we teach kids about the food system, and then everything else that comes with it, there are little moments of awe.”
$10,000 granted to help address food insecurity and teach children about the food system with school and other gardens; funds will sustain existing programs and staffing. (Fall 2023)
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$10,000 granted on 11/9/2022 to offer educational programs, build and maintain vegetable gardens. (Fall 2022)
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$7,500 granted on 11/26/2021 to provide general operating support for project coordination services. (Fall 2021)
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$5000 granted on 6/16/2021 to Each Green Corner to providing funding toward an Outdoor Classroom at Central Middle School. (Spring 2021)
Each Green Corner granted an additional $4,000 on 10/28/2020 to create additional school campus projects. Granted $6,000 on 5/15/2020 to create outdoor classrooms at two San Carlos elementary schools to assist with socially-distanced learning.
https://www.eachgreencorner.org/