A volunteer crew from Netflix, recruited by L.A. Works, spends a warm August morning revitalizing the Edendale Grove garden, a Seeds of Hope project next door to St. Paul’s Commons in Echo Park. Photo: Janet Kawamoto
A crew puts together a new picnic table for the Edendale Grove garden during an August work day. Photo: L.A. Works
[The Episcopal News] Building garden benches, raised beds and picnic tables, not to mention planting, pruning, composting and other tasks, kept a crew of volunteers from Netflix, the streaming channel, busy on Aug. 22 at Edendale Grove, the Seeds of Hope garden in Echo Park.
Seeds of Hope, the food justice ministry of the Diocese of Los Angeles, since its founding in 2013 has provided fresh produce to undernourished people through its food distribution programs – currently about 2.2 millions pounds a year. Among other services, Seeds of Hope staff teach healthy cooking and nutrition education classes, and help churches, organizations and individuals establish gardens to provide food for their communities. It also hosts a master gardener training program through the state university system, and works with seven hospitals as a nutrition referral service.
Seeds of Hope, now in its 11th year, recently saw a change of leadership as founding executive director Tim Alderson retired. Steven Trapasso, who holds a master’s degree in public health from Tulane University in New Orleans and has been a Seeds of Hope staff member since 2014, succeeded Alderson in January. Trapasso briefed the January 2024 meeting of Diocesan Council on the agency’s most recent accomplishments; a report is here. A March 2024 Episcopal News story about the leadership transition and current projects is here.
Volunteers from Netflix assemble a new bench. Photo: L.A. Works
The Netflix volunteers came to Seeds of Hope through L.A. Works, “our longtime partner that sends us interested volunteers for our events on a regular basis,” Trapasso told The Episcopal News. Volunteers have worked in Seeds of Hope’s gardens, distributions centers and its annual Thanksgiving event. “[L.A. Works] was approached by Netflix to do a garden workday in Los Angeles. L.A. Works asked if we’d be interested, and we said, ‘Heck, yes!’”
The offer came at a time when Seeds of Hope was transforming the Edendale garden from a labyrinth layout to raised beds, “to grow more food and also to hold workshops,” Trapasso said, “because most families we would be teaching are going to be growing in either containers or raised beds.”
Seeds of Hope is entirely funded by grants from various government and nonprofit organizations. Since the Covid pandemic, Trapasso explained, Los Angeles County “has repurposed funding they had set aside for gardening to food recovery and distribution, which meant the garden in Echo Park has been without a main funding source.” Since then, keeping up the garden has required the help of volunteers from L.A. Works, the community compost hub crew, the master gardener program, and corporate volunteers such as those from Netflix. “So whenever we have the opportunity to build more beds, grow more food, engage volunteers, we jump at the chance,” Trapasso said.
A crew applies stain to a newly assembled bench. Photo: L.A. Works
On Aug. 22, Trapasso said, “the L.A. Works group and Seeds of Hope crew arrived around 7:30 a.m. to set up the garden and bring all the tools and materials out so we’d be ready to start [the work] right away.” The Netflix crew arrived at around 9 and after a brief orientation began tackling projects: building garden benches and raised beds, setting up irrigation lines, composting, planting, pruning, fertilizing. Another team got the food pantry at St. Paul’s Commons next door ready for its regular Friday distribution.
“We got a lot done,” said Trapasso. Between 9 a.m. and noon, the crew built two picnic tables, three benches, two benches with built-in containers for plants, pruned 10 fruit trees, composted 400 pounds of green beans, trimmed and fertilized the banana trees, and tended the existing raised beds.
“We installed irrigation in the raised beds which will allow us to grow more efficiently and effectively,” said Trapasso, “because when plants know they can count on watering at regular intervals, they thrive.”
More about Seeds of Hope and volunteer opportunities is here.
At left: Steve Trapasso and a volunteer install new irrigation and tend a raised garden. Center: A volunteer trims the banana trees in Edendale Garden, which are already producing fruit (at right). Photos: Janet Kawamoto