Fremont Wellness Center & Community Garden
LOCATION
South Los Angeles
7821 South Avalon Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90003
SIZE
1.5 acres
FOUNDED
2012
Since opening the Fremont Wellness Center and Community Garden on the John C. Fremont High School campus in 2012 (in partnership with LAUSD and UMMA Community Clinic), the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust has worked with local partners and residents in the South Los Angeles community of Florence to develop a hub for urban agriculture education, food waste recycling and fresh produce access. Through our work, we educate community members and local students (who participate in our Gardening Apprenticeship Program) on modern food systems, and the critical impacts that composting and food waste have on our society. In partnership with Food Forward and LA Compost, the Fremont Wellness Center is currently composting over 500 pounds of food waste per month. Looking ahead into the future, the Neighborhood Land Trust hopes to work with LA Compost to establish the Fremont Wellness Center as a South LA hub for composting and food waste recycling.
In 2017, the Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust (in partnership with UMMA Community Clinic and Food Forward) launched the bi-weekly Fremont Free Food Fair. Since it began, the event has distributed over 200,000 pounds of fresh produce that would have otherwise gone to waste, serving over 1,700 local community members. The event also brings out a wide variety of health and environmental partners who link residents picking up fresh produce with additional health and wellness resources (including enrollment in CalFresh).
Gardening Apprenticeship Program (GAP)
In 2013, in partnership with LAUSD and UMMA Community Clinic, LANLT established the Fremont Wellness Center and Community Garden, which includes a free clinic operated by UMMA, as well as a community park, fruit orchard, and garden operated by LANLT. Additionally, we run our innovative youth development initiative, the Gardening Apprenticeship Program, or GAP, at the site. GAP is a 9-month after-school program that provides environmental and sustainable agricultural education, hands-on skill-building, and leadership development training with at-risk youth from Fremont High School. GAP is the only program of its kind in South LA.
By working with UMMA, LA Trust for Children’s Health, LA Compost, Food Forward and other partners, we created a curriculum that includes nutrition, cooking workshops, composting, and field trips to nature preserves, and state and local parks. The curriculum also features a guest speaker series, a school-wide health equity fair, and a community-based, biweekly, free food fair.
GAP’s goals are to nurture leadership skills in Black and Latinx young people and provide Fremont students with a safe outdoor space in which to learn, grow, and foster community. The program develops leaders who are equipped to cultivate climate resilience in their community and support environmental and food justice efforts in South LA and beyond. In a typical school year, fourteen or more students participate in the program that meets up to three times a week. Students who successfully complete GAP receive a $1,000 stipend at the end of the year because we recognize the socio-economic stressors these students face and that many of them work after-school jobs to help support their families.
Since its inception in 2014, GAP has trained over 300 youth leaders as social and environmental justice advocates, promoted healthier lifestyles, advanced health equity at Fremont High School, and helped feed the community.