Olivewood Gardens held its 15th Anniversary Launch Party on March 1 with more than 100 guests attending the nonprofit’s milestone.
Attendees experienced three interactive stations from its Field Trip Program, Olivewood’s flagship initiative since 2010. Olivewood also received proclamations from the City of National City and Congressman Juan Vargas. Olivewood Gardens offers several classes and programs, such as youth and adult cooking classes, field trip programs, garden training, and more. Olivewood’s mission is to nourish communities and cultivate a deep connection to the environment through nutrition education, sustainable urban agriculture, collective advocacy, and intergenerational leadership.
Olivewood Gardens Associate Director Clair Groebner said it was exciting to celebrate 15 years of working in the community.
“We primarily serve National City and South San Diego, but we also have a broader reach throughout San Diego County. This year, we are celebrating having really deep roots in the community focused on food and environmental justice, environmental nutrition education, leadership development, job skills, community building. Everything that you can almost imagine all involved around food and environment, and the important connections that we make over food and outdoor spaces,” she said.
Groeber said this celebration was meant to be a large community event.
“We had summer presentations from our local school district,” she said. “We framed our event around our Field Trip program, which is our flagship program. It was the first hands-on education program we really did in our community, really focused on serving National School District, which is our local National Elementary School District. Folks who came participated in a three-part hands-on series. They did nutrition activities, cooking ‘happy tacos, and happy veggie tacos,’ and we did resource, recycling, and compost lessons, and the pollinators and bugs lesson so that adults can get a little more of an adult version of what our field trips look like, to make it a little more fun rather than a sit down gathering so folks had time to wander through the gardens and spend time in our beautiful space,” she said.
Groebner said Olivewood relaunched its Roots for Health Monthly Giving program, with a new logo, and new materials.
“We also shared an updated mission statement. We have grown a lot over the past 15 years from what we started as, so we developed an updated mission statement that really better reflects all the things that we do in support of our community,” she said.
Groebner said throughout the year, Olivewood will hold smaller celebrations, incorporating the anniversary into many of its events, with a 15th anniversary “vibe.”
“We are really trying to use it as an opportunity to celebrate what we have been able to accomplish with our partnership with the community and communities of support. And also to really get more folks to learn more about Olivewood, to get involved, to participate in programs, to become a supporter either as a donor or as a volunteer to continue to grow our community so we can keep growing, cultivating, and connecting over the next 15 years,” she said.
