The Food to FoRx Community Garden will open to the community on May 3.
Community gardeners at Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church.
A grand opening celebration will take place on May 3, from 10 a.m. to noon, for the Healthy House Food to FoRx Community Garden at Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran Church, 1455 E. Yosemite Avenue in Merced.
Dignitaries will be on hand for an official ribbon-cutting at 10:30 a.m. Refreshments will be provided.
The big Food to FoRx Community Garden, featuring 60 raised beds, is the result of a partnership between the church and Healthy House. The local non-profit received grants from the Merced County Department of Public Health and Central California Alliance for Health to establish the garden as well as an Rx Prescription Produce program to provide local produce to Medi-Cal patients and their families. Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran provided land along with many volunteers to help make the garden a reality.
Now that the beds have been built, gardeners — mostly from Merced’s Southeast Asian community — have planted summer gardens. As part of the grant, gardeners have agreed to donate 25 percent of their produce to an Rx Prescription Produce program which Healthy House is piloting with the assistance of the Make Someone Happy project, the Family Medical Residency program, Merced Co. Dept. of Public Health, UC CropMobsters, and the Merced County Food Bank.
“For low-income patients to receive prescriptions from their healthcare providers for fresh produce, rather than just pharmaceuticals, really supports a preventative approach to health,” according to Candice Adam-Medefind, Executive Director of Healthy House.
Ongoing assistance is provided by Master Gardener Marc Medefind who also serves as liaison between Shepherd of the Valley Lutheran and Healthy House. Each week, Medefind meets with Chai Moua and Mimi Xiong who are the community garden program leads for Healthy House.
Other community help for the garden came following Merced College’s annual plant sale. Many plants not purchased were donated to the garden.
“This has truly become a community effort,” said Medefind, who offered thanks to all the volunteers who have helped out. “It’s wonderful to think that this thing we love to do — with our hands in the dirt and our hearts with nature — benefits so many in the community.”