The “Giving Garden” – a Vocational Services Partnership of MCHC and
Noyo Food Forest, funded by Community Development Block Grant

The Giving Garden
operates at three of the Mendocino Coast Hospitality Center (MCHC) locations:
Transitional Housing, Hospitality House and Hospitality Center. The decision
was made to locate at MCHC because after the grant ends, the Giving Garden
itself as a location will not be lost, as would have been the case with a
rental lot. In addition, the gardens can continue to benefit participants at
MCHC locations and the rent in the budget to be reallocated towards extra training
and extra garden materials, again maximizing the benefits of the grant funding.

The Giving Garden
provides horticultural classes (which Noyo Food Forest has just begun to teach
now that spring has arrived) and vocational classes. A full binder of the
vocational class materials is maintained on site. Before Noyo Food Forest
started, work was done to prepare the locations and to build the raised beds
that were recommended by Noyo Food Forest. MCHC vocational classes are taught
by the MCHC Vocational Services Coordinator, who has previous experience as a
Job Coach and through running her own business in the private sector.

The CDBG total budget
for thirty months is around $186,000 = an average of $6,200 per month.
Expenditure from August 2015 – April 2016 was $46,421.88 (averaging $5,157.99).

Budget:

-Garden installation: $7,300

-Garden maintenance: $7,750

-Noyo Food Forest staff: $48,647

-MCHC staff: $63,000

-Office supplies and marketing: $5,500

-Client stipends: $23,400

-Rent: $30,000 (now that rent is not needed on an
external location, there is $30,000 more to spend on plants, training, supplies
etc.).

Horticultural Progress

The Giving Garden is
a three-site project. The first site developed was at the Hospitality Center at
101 N. Franklin Street. Five raised beds for vegetables were built. A plan was
developed to grow the vegetables most usable in the feeding program at
Hospitality House—these included lettuce and other greens, broccoli, and carrots.
Garlic was planted during the winter to take advantage of the extensive garden
space devoted to roses. “Roses love garlic” is an accepted companion planting
strategy and over 10 pounds of garlic was grown, confirming this opportunity.
Garlic will again be planted in the fall, and in greater quantities. We added
sugar snap peas to the garden in a row of five containers against the north
wall, and these have recently begun producing. We will be adding three more
containers of peas at the next session. The beds at this location have been
producing food since May. Total food produced to date is 150.75 pounds. Of this
140.25 pounds went to the Hospitality House kitchen and 10.5 went to the Food
Bank. The beds are now in their second planting and a succession-planting plan
is in place with the intent to keep these beds producing on a continuing basis.

Once harvesting food was
successfully underway from the Center location, development began at the
Hospitality House site at 237 N McPherson Street. Five raised beds were already
in place there but most were devoted to ornamental plants. The first step was
to remove the ornamental plants in order to convert the beds to food
production. Some ornamentals were moved to in-ground ornamental beds at the
same site; others were repotted for future sale. The final bed, which was
filled with iris, was recently cleared and planted with green. All the beds are
now planted with greens, broccoli, squash, etc. There is less sun at this site
than the Center. Some heat-loving plants such as basil were tried, but they
have not thrived. Also planted in the in-ground beds are a full array of
perennial culinary herbs including rosemary, thyme, oregano, sage, and mint. A
small amount of lettuce has been harvested from here, and the culinary herbs
are already being used in the kitchen. Ongoing, lettuce and salad greens will
be kept going at this site, which are appropriate to the low sun, and will make
salad ingredients conveniently available to the kitchen.

The third site will
be developed next. At the Transitional Housing site at Harrison Street, there
will be raised beds and a small 8’x10’ greenhouse will be installed to on-set plants
and teach propagation.

Route to Employment

At 6/30/16, Eleven
people left the Giving Garden program into employment, and five of them are
still employed.

Location

Job

Outcome

Hotel

Front desk

Still employed

Fast food restaurant

Food preparation

Still employed

Hotel

Housekeeping

Still employed

Nonprofit

Care provider

Still employed

Fishing

Fisherman

Still employed

Out of county employer

Unknown

Still employed

Fast food restaurant

Food preparation

Quit – heavily pregnant

Supermarket

Unknown

Quit

Nonprofit

Janitor

Quit

Hotel

Housekeeping

Terminated

Convenience store

Shelf stocking

Hospitalized

The program is a
soft-skills, basic-level vocational program for people with many additional needs
related to homelessness and mental illness, rather than a direct job re-entry
program, so it is extra exciting when participants get full time employment!
Participants have told the MCHC Vocational Services Coordinator, that they used
techniques and skills that were learned in Giving Garden Vocational Training
classes, at their interviews, and in that way helped their own success.

Vocational Classes

The Giving Garden is
primarily a vocational program, with the gardening element being a vehicle for
work experience. Therefore, the vocational classes are a vital and substantial
part of the program. Here are the classes taught between 7/1/15 – 6/30/16.