CommuniCare Health Centers provide high-quality health care services to anyone in Yolo County, regardless of their ability to pay. In 2020, CommuniCare built a garden next to Hansen Family Health Center in Woodland to demonstrate how healthy food is foundational to patient well-being. CommuniCare clients can opt to meet with a provider at a picnic table in the garden, and they help themselves to garden-grown fruits and vegetables, recipes and produce information while waiting for an appointment.
Allweather Wood believed in the vision of the garden and donated lumber before the site had even been plowed. Redwood was delivered to Northern California Construction Training whose trainees built picnic tables and raised beds that would eventually be installed in the garden.
When the COVID-19 pandemic disrupted livelihoods, the looming economic and hunger crisis made the garden’s mission even more urgent. The 12 raised garden beds were put to use immediately to grow a variety of vegetable crops. In 16 months of production, the beds have yielded 4,226 pounds of vegetables that have gone home with approximately 3,000 CommuniCare patients! Patients remark that getting produce at the health center helps them eat more vegetables than they otherwise would, and that they feel healthier as a result.
Read more about Communicare's garden and find out more about their other services on their main website.