Marines spring clean NCCS gardens like no one's business!

Thank you Marines!

Thank you to the 40+  Marines from Camp Pendleton that came and volunteered at the Gardens at North River Road today! These men and women dedicate years of their lives to serve their country, and on top of that, they give back to the local community as well. We are so grateful for their service, both every day and today. 

They spent two hours Friday afternoon on May 30th, 2014 helping weed, rake, clean, and organize the Gardens at North River Road, operated by North County Community Services (NCCS). This garden grows over 4000 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables each year, and this fresh bounty is used in the lunches and snacks at the six preschools operated by NCCS.

Today in the garden, they quickly filled up our dumpster with weeds- meaning our fruits and vegetables now have a lot less competition in the garden. They also sorted through tons of lumber, trellises, and other bulky garden materials, trashing what was broken and organizing all the rest. They got all of our wood vegetable trellises ready for the summer growing season, raked up dead leaves, and left the place looking great. Thank you!

Would your group like to do a volunteer project with North County Community Services?  Contact Abby at volunteer@sdnccs.org or call her at 760-471-5483

Happy New Year!

Fresh tomatoes, cucumbers, and green beans harvested from
The Gardens at North River Road

The closing of a year is always a great time to reflect on times past and plan for great things to come. The year 2013 was a great year for our garden program at North County Community Services. Thanks to the help and contributions of wonderful volunteers, we were able to harvest a total of 3100 lbs of fresh fruits and vegetables from the Gardens at North River Road! All of this fresh food is delivered directly to preschools operated by NCCS, bringing super fresh, natural food right into their kitchens for lunches and snacks!

We had tons of great volunteer projects in 2013. The biggest project this year was North Coast Church. They selected two of our sites for their Weekend of Service projects in April. They took care of tons of projects, from light construction, to painting, gardening, renovating, weeding, mulching, and more. 

Then in June, we finally got fruit trees planted! We now have a 14 tree orchard, sponsored and installed by Genentech during their Genentech Gives Back Week in June. With the technical expertise from a professor and students from City College, we got a great drip-irrigation system installed later in the year, making upkeep much easier.

Northrop Grumman donated and built shade structures
for new seedlings to grow in.

In the fall of 2013, we had the most successful cool-season crop seedlings started on site, thanks to volunteers! In August, Northrop Grumman came through with donations and volunteers to build two structures for shade cloth, where cool-loving plants can be started months before the summer heat is over!

But we still needed tables to go underneath the two new shade structures. In September, Akamai Technologies came through and literally turned a little drawing into two amazing seed starting tables, complete with an angle top tilted towards the sun, cedar planks to prevent rot, and an extra credit shelf underneath to store supplies.

Ta-da! Amazing tables, courtesy of Akamai Technologies.

Sketch up of the tables we needed

Our new tables fit perfectly
under the new shade structure!

The plants stay up to 15 degrees cooler, and don't dry out as fast. Now that it is well into winter, we have finally taken the shade cloth off for the season and put it in storage. In the spring, we hope to use plastic to make the area into mini-greenhouses, and in the summer, back to shade cloth again! We were highly successful starting lettuce, cabbage, onions, and more!

These are just a few of the great projects that happened in 2013. Thank you to our long list of volunteers and community partners. We couldn't do it without you! If you are interested in doing a volunteer project with North County Community Services in 2014, contact Abby at volunteer@sdnccs.org!

A cool Brassica is a happy Brassica.

STM Bags helps raise food and money for North County's Food Bank!

Need some new bags? STM bags is using their Warehouse Sale to raise food and money for North County's Food Bank! Bring 10 lbs of food or $10 to donate, and receive a 10% discount from their already reduced prices! Bring 20 lbs or $20 and your discount goes up to 20%!

The sale will be from 9am-5pm on Friday, July 12, and 9am-3pm and Saturday, July 13. It is open to the public, at 12840 Danielson Court, Suite B/C in Poway, CA 92064.

Harvest Mural Completed!

Winter features oranges, chard, beets,
cabbage, cauliflower, and broccoli.

Spring features lettuce, radishes, carrots,
salad greens, peas, and colorful flowers.

North County Community Services would like to send out a huge thanks to the many volunteers who contributed time, talent, and materials to the mural at Balderrama Preschool in Oceanside. After nearly 8 months of work, we have finished the harvest mural! 

The Harvest Mural at the Balderrama Preschool was painted to improve the courtyard where preschoolers and their families enter our facility through. The addition of both the mural, as well as a succulent garden, has made the space come alive with life and art! The mural was designed to represent different cultures and genders. Each of the four mural sections represents one of the four seasons. In each season, a smiling child holds and is surrounded by fresh fruits and vegetables that are usually harvested in that season. Representing a diversity of fresh food available all year round is easy in San Diego County!

Much hard work was put in by volunteers from Oak Hills Covenant Church (two sessions!) Coca-Cola, and North Coast Church to make this mural possible. Each of these groups not only helped make the mural dream a reality with volunteers, but also with donations of paint and paint brushes! 

Summer features sunflower, watermelon,
eggplant, tomato, cucumber, squash, poppy,
and lavender flowers.

A very special thanks to volunteers Leah and Jesus for helping with many sessions of finishing touches! Without the design, artistic talent, donation, and time put in from all our volunteers, this project would not have been possible. We are very happy with the final product, and the kids at the preschool love it! Thank you also to Teen Volunteers in Action, Cal Coast Academy, and Marriott International for helping with other improvement projects in the courtyard to make the mural area look great!

The full photo album of the mural project can be found here on our Facebook page. If you think your group would be a good fit for a mural project, contact Abby at volunteer@sdnccs.org or 760-471-5483. We are currently looking for groups to help with preschool bathroom murals in Escondido and Oceanside.

Fall features pumpkins, grapes, avocados,
apples,  pears, and falling leaves.

Genentech donates a food forest!

On June 7, Genentech employees came out to the Gardens at North River Road for their yearly volunteer project. this year, they left a very long-lasting mark by donating and planting 14 fruit trees. Six volunteers worked for about three hours to dig holes, amend soil, install gopher baskets to protect the investment, and get the fruit trees in the ground.

Genentech volunteers planted 14 fruit trees on June 7.

Thanks to Genentech, we now have apples, nectarines, plums, peaches, apricots, figs, banana, pineapple guava, and nectaplums growing in our garden! They do need to establish themselves for a few years before they will be producing any fruit, but we are greatly looking forward to having fresh, natural fruits to serve our preschoolers for lunches ans snacks. We are happy to have another addition of perennials (plant's that continue to grow as long as their needs are met, as opposed to annuals that need to be replanted every year) in the garden. By planting more perennials, we are ensuring a harvest in years to come, without having to dig out old plants and replant every season.

Thank you Genetech! We can't wait to work with you again next year!

Life Technologies Global Volunteer Day

Life Technologies employees volunteer at the Gardens at North River Road

Life Technologies sent a great crowd of volunteers to the Gardens at North River Road for their Global Volunteer Day on Friday, May 24 2013. In that quick day, 43 volunteers put in a total of 170 hours of work- that's like having a full time employee in the garden for a whole month!

Made-over scarecrows got
new faces, clothes, and stuffing

Life Technologies was able to donate materials and time to complete a number of important projects. Most notably, they added to our trellises that North Coast Church installed. Not only did Life Technologies add lattice and more cross-beams to increase shade, but they were able to build cedar planter boxes underneath the trellises, and plant the new beds with vines. They planted kiwi and passionfruit, which are both edible vines, as well as jasmine, honeysuckle, purple wings, and orange clock- all flowering vines that will provide shade and help attract pollinators to our garden.

Volunteers hard at work
clearing ground for sunflowers

In addition to the trellis work, they were able to plant many seeds, including beans, watermelon, and sunflowers. They also gave many of our scarecrows much-needed makeovers, painted labels for new plants, repaired compost bins, and helped with weekly tasks like weeding and watering. Thank you Life Technologies for another successful day in the garden!

If you would like to do a volunteer project with your company, organization, school, or club, contact Abby Weglarz, Garden Program and Volunteer Coordinator for North County Community Services, at 760-471-5483 or volunteer@sdnccs.org.

Sponsor a Garden bed at the Gardens at North River Road!

Spring is here! It's time for summer planting at the Gardens at North River Road and North County Community Services needs your help!

Now is the time to sponsor a garden bed! We truly appreciate the tremendous support we receive from individuals, families, churches, schools, companies, corporate, military and other groups in North County. Over the past year we have logged over 2,300 volunteer hours of service in our production vegetable garden. Growing fresh fruits, vegetables, and herbs enhances our programs by providing delicious, healthy food of unmatched freshness to those we serve; additionally, it reduces our fresh food costs. Without your support we simply could not maintain the level of success we have enjoyed this past year. In addition to volunteering, you can help us purchase soil amendments, plants, seeds, tools, and pay the water bills and the garden program team! We have several garden sponsorship opportunities you can choose from that will help us succeed this growing season. Sponsoring a bed at the Gardens at North River Road is a great way to show your support of the work we do at North County Community Services. -Sponsorship opportunities- Sponsorship may be made by a company, school, church, family, individual, or in honor of someone. A total of 34 vegetable beds and 6 flower beds are available for sponsorship. Your gift of $1,000 will sponsor one vegetable bed for the summer season.  (April - September). Your $1,000 sponsorship includes... The right to one exclusive group tour/volunteer session during the season. A sign bearing your name or sponsorship message at the head of each bed you sponsor. A garden newsletter subscription with notes on activities, harvests and the impact the fresh produce has in our programs. Invitation to our summer garden tour and educational workshop. Exclusive right to renew sponsorship for fall season (October-February). There are 34 beds available at this sponsorship level.  Your gift of $500 will sponsor one fruit tree or flower beds for the summer season. (April-September)  Your $500 sponsorship includes... A sign bearing your name or sponsorship message at the head of each bed you sponsor. A garden newsletter subscription with notes on activities, harvests and the impact the fresh produce has in our programs. Invitation to our summer garden tour and educational workshop. There are 6 beds available at this sponsorship level. To sponsor a bed at $1,000 or $500, just click here: Donate Now Any questions or comments about the NCCS spring/summer fundraising campaign, volunteering, or our garden program can be directed to Abby at volunteer@sdnccs.org or 760-471-5483.

Thank you North Coast Church!

North Coast Church Volunteer Team at Thunder

At North County Community Services, we are very grateful for the volunteer projects North Coast Church has done for us over the years. Their intimate growth groups have helped paint murals, classrooms, cleaned, and gardened at various preschool sites with our organization. But this spring, they took their service to a new level with their Weekend of Service project.

Working on the Mural at Thunder Preschool

On April 27 and April 28, 2013, North Coast Church completed about 200 community service projects in North County San Diego, including two projects with North County Community Services. If you live in North County, you may have noticed their "North Coast Church Weekend of Service" signs popping up in front of schools, community centers, and nonprofits in the area. On Saturday and Sunday, they worked on projects at both our Thunder Preschool, as well as the Gardens and Preschool at North River Road. 

The Cleaning Team at North River Road

At our Thunder Preschool, they gave the site a complete face-lift! This included power-washing and painting the entire exterior of the building, as well as the inside entrance hall. They mulched the garden area, built new vegetable beds, and added dirt to existing garden beds. They repainted and improved the mural on site. They cleaned classrooms. They replaced our front sign. They were incredible! A complete photo album of the Thunder Preschool projects can be found here.

Young helpers carrying lumber for a trellis

At the Gardens and Preschool at North River Road, there was more gardening, and less painting. They did do some painting, including a wonderful welcome sign, and the alphabet, numbers, and tricycle tracks in the playground. Most volunteers helped in the garden, including building two shade trellises, 6 brand new garden beds, and tons (literally tons) of mulching. They also helped us dispose of all sorts of unusable garden waste. Thanks to North Coast Church (and all the volunteers who have helped in the past) the Gardens at North River Road now look the best they have ever! There was also plenty of weeding, replanting, and compost turning over the weekend.  They even helped revamp the small preschool garden on site. A complete photo album of the North River Road projects can be found here.

 

New sign at Thunder

New garden sign

From the staff, board, volunteers, and families served by North County Community Services, thank you North Coast Church for your Weekend of Service!

Earth Day Weekend Projects!

Ladybug in the garden

What a great Earth Day Weekend with North County Community Services! This weekend Callaway Golf, Cal Coast Academy, and Teen Volunteers in Action all did wonderful volunteer projects with us. We love volunteers and are happy when groups come out to give a helping hand, and we are especially thankful for these three groups because of all the materials they donated to complete the projects!

Callaway Golf volunteers at the end of their project.

On Saturday May 20th, Callaway Golf came to the Gardens at North River Road in Oceanside with about 20 volunteers, 120 pepper plants, soil amendment, and all the materials needed to build a new compost bin for North County's Food Bank! In two hours, they were able to plant five beds of peppers, and build a stacking compost bin system. The compost bins are made of cedar, which is naturally rot resistant (a great quality in a compost bin!). Callaway Golf completes community service projects every month, and it was a pleasure to be able to partner with them to make this month's project and earth-friendly one.

Our finished succulent garden at Balderrama Preschool!

In the afternoon on Saturday, Cal Coast Academy installed a succulent garden in the courtyard of our Balderrama preschool in Oceanside. Where there was once an unused box of sand, there is now a gorgeous, low water decorative garden. With the help of about a dozen volunteers, they unloaded three pickup trucks of dirt, leveled the ground, and planted many spike-free succulents and grasses. They even brought three cute garden statues to add to the fun! We are so grateful for Cal Coast Academy bringing this project together and going above and beyond coordinating materials and donations to make this dream garden a reality!

Cal Coast Academy volunteers unloading dirt.

Cal coast Academy Volunteers

TVIA volunteers planted 36 tomato plants

Vegetable markers by TVIA

On Sunday, Teen Volunteers in Action brought out 17 volunteers, including teens and parents, to work at the Gardens at North River Road in Oceanside. They brought with them soil amendment, and enough tomatoes seedlings to plant three beds of tomatoes. They also brought paint markers to finish vegetable stake markers for our gardens! It was great to have garden work weeding, amending soil, and planting tomatoes for the teenagers, and a fun artsy project for the parents in the shade. We are looking forward to a big tomato harvest this summer!

Spring is here!

The harvest mural at the Balderrama Preschool is almost finished!

This NCCS preschool garden in Oceanside had a great season!

Spring is in the air! It is a great time for volunteer projects with North County Community Services. We have many groups scheduled for spring volunteer projects like cleaning, gardening, painting, and sprucing up! We are especially looking forward to volunteer projects with North Coast Church at two different sites for their Weekend of Service event. They will be giving one of our preschools a whole face-lift, as well as helping at the Gardens at North River Road. Look out for before and after pictures coming soon! We also have spring projects scheduled with Kids Korps, the Navy, Immersion, Callaway Golf, Teen Volunteers in Action, Life Technologies, Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints, and Genentech.

Preschoolers planting a spring Garden

Although we have lots of volunteer groups scheduled, we do have more projects available for the right group! If you are interested in volunteering, you can always contact Abby at volunteer@sdnccs.org to see what is available with NCCS! We do volunteer projects all year round, but spring is such a great time to do projects because it is usually not too hot and not too cold. 

Spring means we are harvesting lots of winter vegetables before they turn bitter in the heat (volunteers picked 21 lbs of lettuce yesterday from the Gardens at North River Road!). We are also getting summer vegetables started- peppers, beans, cucumbers, squash, tomatoes, and melons love some heat, and can all be planted now through at least June. HAPPY GARDENING AND HAPPY VOLUNTEERING!!!

Fall Harvest Mural Completed!

George! The fall harvest kid!

 A big thanks to Oak Hills Covenant Church of Vista, CA who spent Saturday, August 25 at the NCCS operated Balderrama Preschool in Oceanside. The big project they worked on was the "Fall" section of a 4-part, seasons themed harvest mural. Twenty three volunteers from the church brought paint, brushes, and their able bodies to paint the mural, as well as clean all of our playground equipment, repaint tricycle tracks in the playground, and sand and paint a picnic table. The scrubbed and hosed walls and slides, put artistic touches on the pavement in the playground, and worked on sprucing up the preschool any way they could think of. The volunteers stayed for about 3 hours cleaning and painting. We are so appreciative of Oak Hills Covenant Church for donating both their time and materials to make the preschool a safer, healthier, and more beautiful place for our teachers and students.

Volunteers working on the mural.

Volunteers geared up to start painting!

The students at the preschool absolutely love the mural! The mural features a young boy holding a basket of fall seasonal produce- apples, pears, grapes, and avocados. More grapes and large pumpkins grow near his side. The preschoolers have already affectionately named this character "George". We can't wait to see what they name the Winter, Spring, and Summer harvest friends!

Jesus Martinez working on the finishing touches!

NCCS would also like to thank Jesus Martinez for volunteering to create this mural from design to finishing touches.Jesus is a wonderful local artist, graphic designer, and muralist. If you are interested in supporting his work, he can be reached by email.

Do you have a group interested in improving one of our  sites? 
We can accommodate groups of 5-50 volunteers, and have a range of projects from simply cleaning, to interior painting, murals, and garden projects. For current group (or individual) volunteer opportunities, email Abby at volunteer@sdnccs.org or call her at 760-471-5483.

The full mural. The pillars built into the walls were incorporated into the mural as tree trunks, separating the seasons.

Summer Gardening at North County's Food Bank

Planting tomato seedlings

We have a beautiful summer garden planted at North County's Food Bank! We would like to give a HUGE thank you to Prescription Solutions by OptumRx for doing this great project! Not only did they volunteer to amend the soil and plant new seedlings, but they donated all of the materials that this project required. With 22 volunteers, they were able to get the garden planted quickly, as well as help out inside the warehouse at North County's Food Bank, and replant flower containers in our front entrance.

Prepping the soil for planting

OptumRx volunteers did this project on Wednesday, July 11. If you remember, this was one of the hottest days this summer in San Diego County! I am thankful and impressed they kept up good spirits and hard work despite the heat. All five garden beds were planted- one with a variety of peppers, one with a variety of tomatoes, one with cucumbers, one with melon, and one with watermelon. Thanks again OptumRx!

Everything is planted!

prAna in the garden!

prAna volunteers after a hard days work!

North County Community Services was delighted to have a wonderful volunteer group come to the Gardens at River Road on Friday! The Carlsbad based clothing company prAna brought out a huge crew of volunteers to do a massive day of hard work in the garden! They were able to accomplish so much in a few short hours, and we are so very thankful for the hard work, wonderful and positive attitudes, creativity, and leadership the team brought. Their accomplishments included:

• Planting 6 dwarf fruit trees- all citrus!
• Weeding community garden plots, now ready for planting
• Massive clean-up of compost piles, trash piles, leveling ground, and general beautification
• Staining picnic tables for the garden
• Painting beautiful signs for vegetables, fruit trees, compost, and more
• Finished all the summer plantings for the "North End" of the Gardens at River Road- the half of the garden that produces for our preschool programs and North County's Food Bank.
• Installing 4 new community garden beds- now ready for rent!

It is amazing what we can accomplish as a community when we work together! Thank you prAna for making North County San Diego a better place to live! We hope you can join us again next year!

A bird friend hiding in the flowers.

Welcome to Summer!

Life Technologies Global Volunteer Day May 4 2012

You can feel it in the air, summer is here in San Diego! The gardens are growing fast, North County's Food Bank is doing great, and many of our preschoolers are getting ready to graduate soon! We have had a tremendous amount of volunteer support recently, and I wish we had room to personally thank the 700+ volunteers that have contributed to improving their community through volunteer projects with North County Community Services so far this year. Recently, volunteers have been involved in the following projects:

• In June, North Coast Church helped repaint the inside of one of the preschools we operate in Oceanside. It looks wonderful and pictures are to come soon!
• North County Community Services was featured in The Coast News! Here is the article!
• Volunteers helped collect donations at the National Association of Letter Carriers food drive in May. We had a record number of donations for this particular food drive, and North County's Food Bank is now well stocked with canned and dry food!
• Also in May, Life Technologies volunteered at the Gardens at River Road as one of the projects in their Global Volunteer Day. Not only did they bring 60 volunteers, but they also helped us with supplies including tons of mulch, compost, new plants, and new tools! 
• In April the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints brought the most volunteers to the Gardens at River Road on record at one time- 105 volunteers total! Lots of them were kids, and everyone had tons of fun!

Volunteers from the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints April 21 2012

We don't have room to Thank all of our volunteers, but I would like to at least thank all of the groups that have volunteered so far in 2012: 

Walz Group

USMC 9th Comm Bn

Tri City Christian School

Tariq Khamisa Foundation

Taiwanese Presbyterian Church

Redlands Adventist Academy

Pomona College Alternabreak

Pilgrim UCC

Northrop Grumman

North Coast Church

Marines MWSS-372 MT Company

Life Technologies

Junior League of San Diego

Immersion

High Tech High

Hewlett-Packard

Girl scouts

Escondido USDA NRS

CSUSM Golden Key Club

Coca-Cola

Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints

Calvary Chapel Vista Women's Ministry

California Conservation Corps

Bank of America 24 Hour Fitness

Thank you one and all for volunteering!

~Abby Weglarz~

~North County Community Services~

~Garden Program & Volunteer Coordinator~

Stopping youth violence, growing fresh food!

North County Community Services (NCCS) has been working with the Escondido location of the Tariq Khamisa Foundation (TKF) for almost a year. TKF works to stop youth violence through education, mentorship, and community service programs. Whenever they have some time off of school, TKF mentors and mentees come to NCCS to do community service projects together! Since April of 2011, they have logged over 300 hours at different volunteer projects within NCCS, including several gardening projects and many trips to North County's Food Bank. Most recently, they sent 22 volunteers to the Gardens at River Road on February 21, since they had the day off of school.

During their two hours in the garden, TKF stayed busy with gardening tasks including weeding, watering, and harvesting peas, cilantro, kale, spinach, and parsley. To keep the weeding from being too much of a chore, one of the mentors had a weed-picking competition, and the winner got to pick out the movie they would go see after the project.

While providing valuable community service, the youth who volunteered had an opportunity to learn about healthy food options, and see it growing. They asked questions about the different types of vegetables, and had the opportunity to learn how to pick different foods. They showed awe and excitement at the project, taking pictures and saying how they would post about it on Facebook later! Below, there are some pictures taken at this garden project.

Above: TKF points the way to a healthy, violence-free future!

Above: A TKF mentor and mentee harvesting sugar snap peas

Above: Having fun in the garden

Above: A TKF mentor and mentees pose next to freshly harvested lettuce

More information about TKF can be found at www.tkf.org

~Abby Weglarz~

~Garden Program and Volunteer Coordinator~

~North County Community Services~