Wal-Mart grant helps community gardens grow

Even the world’s biggest retailer is climbing aboard the homegrown-food bandwagon.

A $30,000 grant from the Wal-Mart Foundation’s Washington State Giving Program and one half-acre of donated land from Shorty’s greenhouse will allow 50 or more Marrion neighborhood families to grow their own food. Plus, it will help launch or expand four more Vancouver community garden sites in Fruit Valley and along the Fourth Plain corridor.

“I think it’s going to be a total success because so many partners are involved,” said Marrion Neighborhood Association president Charles Stemper during a kick-off event Thursday morning at the new garden, which is on the grounds of Shorty’s Garden and Home, 10006 S.E. Mill Plain Blvd. Shorty’s, Wal-Mart. the Clark County Public Health department and nonprofit groups Americans Building Community and the Vancouver Watersheds Council have all had roles in the effort.

Stemper is now eagerly signing up citizen farmers for 20-by-20 or 10-by-10 plots. The fee for this shortened season is $20 or $10, respectively, but will be more next year. The priority list is Marion neighborhood residents first, then Grace Lutheran Church members (the church is an adjacent neighbor) and finally Wal-Mart employees. Stemper said there could be 50 or more plots in the garden, depending on how many people sign up for each plot size.

To inquire about a space, call Stemper at 360-823-9202. The Marrion Neighborhood Association plot is a rectangle bounded by I-205, Mill Plain, 97th Avenue and 18th Street.

Shorty’s general manager, Colin Mahoney, said he’s also planning on some additional spaces tended by Shorty’s employees, containing raised beds and fruit trees and berry bushes, with the produce headed for local food banks. The entire garden will have above-ground irrigation that can be moved and modified, Mahoney said.

The point is access to fresh, nutritious food for people who may be on the economic margins, according to Gary Bock of the Vancouver Watersheds Council. Bock said he was the chief grant writer on the project but it was spearheaded by the county health department, which is eager to support community gardens.

The grant itself is private money, Bock pointed out. “This isn’t government stimulus money, this isn’t a handout of taxpayer cash,” he said. “This is a big company that really wants to make itself part of our community.”

Anna Petruolo, a caterer and organic gardener in the Fruit Valley neighborhood, said the corner demonstration garden she started this year will be a beneficiary of the grant, too. Next year, she will expand her garden with permanent pathways and more raised beds, she said.

The grant will also expand an existing community garden in the Rose Village neighborhood, Bock said, and start two new gardens on private spaces in the Fourth Plain Village neighborhood.

“Our commitment to Wal-Mart is five gardens by next May,” he said.