Bill's Backyard

Sacred Heart Community Service’s La Mesa Verde (LMV) program is a network of urban gardeners that uses innovative solutions to build a sustainable food system in San Jose and the broader Bay Area. Their approach draws on agroecology to bridge knowledge, build an active community, and implement organic gardening practices. This grant will help cover the cost of purchasing materials needed for the urban gardens, staff time, and community-building efforts.

The Authority’s grant helped fund Living Classroom’s Garden-Based Instruction in the Campbell School District. Living Classroom's environmental education program focuses in three key areas: environmental literacy, connection to healthy food, and science learning that is relevant and real to the lives of students. Living Classroom will provide a full-service program to schools, including lesson instruction to hundreds of classrooms with multiple lessons for each class each year over multiple years, lesson materials, garden installation and maintenance, and recruitment and training of volunteer parents and docents. The goal of the Authority-funded portion the program was to provide top quality, engaging garden-based learning experiences in the areas of science, nutrition, math, and social studies for at least 1,200 K-3 students at five Campbell schools

Authority funds will help the Bay Area Ridge Trail Council solve a complex trail crossing in North Coyote Valley between the Santa Cruz Mountains and western foothills of the Diablo Range. The project will result in a traffic study, survey, and preliminary design. Addressing a critical link between park and open space lands, this project aligns with multiple regional partners and local agency priorities of recreation and land conservation.