Families recently gathered at Olivewood Gardens and Learning Center located at 2525 N Ave. to create pinecone reindeers and Christmas ornaments for Family Fun Night — an event that helps fund nutrition education programs for National City students and families.
“Events like these help South Bay residents build a sense of pride and ownership in the natural, historic space in their neighborhood,” Olivewood public relations consultant Angela Rivera said.
Olivewood Gardens and Learning Center has the mission of empowering students and families from diverse backgrounds to be healthy and active citizens through organic gardening, environmental stewardship and nutrition education.
“While we serve students and adults from around San Diego County, our primary constituency is our neighbors in National City,” Rivera said. “National City, squeezed between its giant neighbors San Diego and Chula Vista, has few human and social service organizations located within its borders. Yet the need is enormous.”
Rivera said nutrition education is especially important in National City because it has a high childhood obesity rate and the rate of diabetes hospitalization and mortality is more than double the county average in National City.
According to a 2016 report by the county of San Diego, the combined rate for overweight and obese children in National School District was the highest in the county at nearly 50 percent.
Rivera said National City schools make up about half of the 125 classes that take field trips to Olivewood Gardens and Learning Center each year, where students have the opportunity to learn about the environment, garden and take a cooking lesson.
Field trips can be arranged Monday-Wednesday from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. and public garden tours can be arranged on Thursdays at 10 a.m.
Olivewood Gardens and Learning Center had more than 2,818 children visit during the 2017-2018 fiscal year, according to their annual impact report. Aside from field trips, they also offer cooking classes and gardening classes specifically designed for children and classes for adults.
A seven week adult cooking class course that aims to teach parents how to make healthy changes to improve their short and long-term health are available in both English and Spanish during spring and fall.
