There will be two more community gardens in Centralia this year. Rob Schnitker, who leads the program for Mission Centralia, made the announcement when speaking at the Greater Centralia Chamber of Commerce monthly luncheon meeting on Wednesday.
Schnitker says one of the new sites is at the Plaza Verde apartments. The other new garden will not be released until next month at the request of the property owner.
“The idea originally was to put in community gardens that were within walking distance of neighborhoods that had high food insecurity, so it was a source of fresh food, fresh produce for people that would be in need,” Schnitker said. “The idea is to keep putting them in places that we can, anywhere people need them.”
Schnitker says this is the fourth year of the program.
“We’ve had a good community response, we’ve had lots of volunteers, we’ve had good engagement with people taking the produce, because they’re completely free and open,” Schnitker said. “Anybody can go up at any time and take whatever is available at their own convenience. We don’t have a fence, we don’t track anything, it’s just free to anybody who needs it. So far, it’s gone very well.”
The existing gardens are on Marion County Housing property on Sycamore between Rexford and Haussler, at the east end of the tennis courts at City Hope Church, in the rear of the Centralia Community Youth Center and at the Wamac Food Pantry.
Schnitker is also working on a plan to have leftover produce available at a central location.
