On Thursday, April 28, 2016 CommunityGrows joined Citizen Films, Green Streets, the Western Addition Neighborhood Access Point Career Center, Bayview Senior Services, the Recreation and Park Department, and other neighborhood partners for an afternoon on Buchanan Mall at the Rosa Parks Senior Center. There was planting of edibles led by Jay Jordan, our CommunityGrows Garden Educator,and cooking demonstrations, led by Crystal Jones, our Seed-to-Mouth Cooking Coordinator. Jay worked with volunteers to harvest vegetables and fruit, and taught them how to re-plant starts.
Crystal made a spring vegetable stir fry and and a veggie loaded three bean chili. There were many dignitaries that joined the Buchanan Mall festivities and seniors from the neighborhood, including Board of Supervisors’ President, London Breed and her legislative aide Iris Wong; Cathy Davis, Executive Director of the Bayview Hunters Point Multipurpose Senior Services; Vallie Brown of the Mayor’s Office of Housing and Community Development; Tamara Walker from Citizen Films; and Derick Brown, Director of the Mayor’s Office of Neighborhood Services. Sophie Constantinou, Director of Citizen Films talked about the history of Buchanan Mall with Liz Ozol, Program Officer, Arts Education Community Investment of the SF Arts Commission. It was a beautiful afternoon to get out and see Buchanan Mall, meet neighbors and enjoy healthy food. More events like this are planned for the future. For more photos from the afternoon, check out our Flickr Photostream here.