CSUMB Community Learning Center & Garden
California State University Monterey Bay has been working in Salinas Chinatown for more than a decade. In 2006 CSUMB opened the Community Learning Center at 22 Soledad Street.
This building provides a classroom for local residents, CSUMB classes, and community organizations. There are three computers, six laptops, a “smart-college” center, printer, fax, and two phones. The Community Learning Center is used by the Salinas Downtown Community Board and its Action Teams for meetings and the Peter Maurin Work Cooperative. The Salinas Chinatown Community Garden is located on 24,000 square feet at the corner of Soledad and Lake Streets. At this location, we have created a 
Community Garden in a very low-income, blighted neighborhood.
Where the Garden is located, no supermarket exists for people to obtain nutritious food at a reasonable rate. Outside of the Garden, Chinatown is a “desert” when it comes to fresh produce. In addition, many people in the neighborhood lack the means to travel to a supermarket at the other end of town and money to purchase nutritious food.
One of our Renewal Project aims is to increase the consumption of fresh produce in Chinatown. We do this through the production of fresh, organic produce in our Garden. The fresh organic vegetables, fruits, and herbs produced in our Garden are given away throughout our Chinatown neighborhood. Most of our distribution of Garden produce is conducted by Dorothy’s Place, a local soup kitchen ( 30 Soledad Street) across the street from our Garden. Dorothy’s uses our Garden produce in the meals they prepare and free boxes of food they give away to people in need. At Dorothy’s Place an average of 150 people a day are served free breakfast and lunch. Produce from our Garden is also donated directly to individuals who visit our Garden.
In 2008, the following was harvested in our Garden:
- 400 bunches of herbs
- 500 pounds of tomatoes
- 600 bunches of row crop vegetables
- 100 baskets of strawberries and 50 strawberry plants
- 5,000 propagated plants
Our Garden has the following elements:
- 39 raised beds each 4 feet wide by 8 feet long and 3 feet high
- 47 half wine barrels for plants
- A native plant area
- Cut flower garden
- An Asian meditation area
- Decomposed gravel pathways
- A greenhouse
- Natural “cobb” benches
- A straw bale tool shed
- Soil piles and verimcompost areas
- A small satellite garden on the side of the Community Learning Center across the street
Our Garden has been a place where people learn about the cycles of life and death and decay and growth. For many people, working in our Garden means getting in touch with their “roots.” As one Garden crew member stated, we are “going back tribal in a concrete jungle.” Community gardens provide a valuable space in an urban landscape. It is a place where people can connect more with themselves, nature, and their community.
