Considering the season, it is unsurprising that the media has chosen to cover two UCCE stories in which giving plays a key role.
The Napa Valley Register today covered a 4-H meeting in which the founder of a local community support group spoke. According to the article, Molly Banz created Molly’s Angels 13 years ago to help people in need.
4-H parent Molly Donohoe said she had been thinking about getting involved in the program for several years. When the family became involved in 4-H, she said, the idea took root.
“We love 4-H because the whole family is involved. It encompasses all the children," Donohoe is quoted in the article.
In Oakland, the Tri-Valley Herald covered the joy in the faces of children as they received seeds and a dose of enthusiasm designed to spark interest in gardening.
About half of Alameda County's public schools have instructional gardens, but school districts generally lack interest due to insufficient funding and manpower to maintain the gardens, according to Justin Watkins, coordinator for the University of California Cooperative Extension's School Garden Program and an Oakland Garden Advisory Council member.
According to the article, Watkins said it costs at least $2,000 to build a workable, basic school garden. After that, additional funds for maintenance, usually from fundraisers, a work force of teachers and volunteers, and donations of equipment and seeds, are necessary to sustain the garden.
For children in urban environments, especially in low-income areas where access to fresh produce is limited or non-existent, the gardens help bridge a disconnect from the origin of their food.
"A lot of the kids we work with don't know where food comes from," according to the executive director of Oakland Based Urban Gardens. "A benefit of school gardens is that they see the life cycle."