According to SantaAna.org, out of the 11 community gardens in California, there are only five in the city of Santa Ana. At such a low number, this doesn’t compare to other states’ cities that have more gardens and resources. Community gardens are free and low cost for purchasing foods. There are lots of people in Santa Ana who rely on fruits and vegetables for their nutrition and meals. The benefits of a garden are that people can buy fruits and vegetables at low prices, unlike a regular grocery store.

The Blooming Buds at MCHS is an organization that helps out small community gardens in Santa Ana by helping out other assistants with any needs or tasks to complete. Now they want to expand their organization with people getting more involved and joining them; however, they still need to raise money to provide all other gardens with new supplies and resources.

Task manager and creator of the Blooming Buds, sophomore Kareem Hosan, shares his goal and dedication to help out the community gardens.

“Our goal is to bring more awareness to gardening in general because there are environmental clubs out there but not as many that are focused on actually doing an impact on gardening,” Hosan said.

Sophomores Rudy Montoya and Andrew Nguyen, the communication managers, add on to the benefits of Blooming Buds for MCHS students.

“Another one of our goals is to provide community service to people,” Montoya said.

“Our goal was to create this club to help fundraise money for local community gardens. And since some of them are pretty needed, we can help assist them,” Nguyen said.

The Blooming Buds are in contact with Veronica Roach, who is the manager of all community gardens in Santa Ana. She provides all of the missing materials needed to local gardens.

“We had an interview with Veronica, and she is the program coordinator and manager of five community gardens that we were talking about. There is Roosevelt Walker, Jerome Park, El Salvador Park and more. When we had that interview, we asked her what things gardens need, and some of the few things she listed were drip irrigation, a sign that is presentable to people, and shears. To get these three things, we’ll try to fundraise as much as we can to provide what is necessary for them,” Hosan said.

A standard day of helping in a community garden is a lot of heavy work. As well that it is something that must be learned how to do right. Hosan shares the normal tasks that must be done to help.

“We typically help pick weeds, harvest crops, remove dead branches, and clear up areas for crops. Overall, we help them organize their garden,” Hosan said.

Many of the community gardens have gotten help, but there are still more gardens in need of improvement. In order to raise money, they all plan to sell items at MCHS to support the community.

“We’ll have either snacks or products like stress balls, stuffed animals, keychains, plushies and our confetti hitman. We are definitely going to sell it because it was the top one that was chosen. It has 44 votes and 87%, which is more than half. I plan in January that we are going to have our first products to sell. We’ll name the store ‘Stress Store.’ They’re going to be products that will help calm you down for the rest of the year,” Hosan said.

So not only are they working on community gardens, but they’re also helping others at MCHS to manage their stress using stress relief toys.

Their cause for a better community overall is great, but first, they need to know how to promote their club to others so that people are aware of the cause and have the chance to be a part of it.

“Maybe on the announcements, for funding, we will definitely put it out there. The club will have a few days to announce it. In general, we have an instagram, @bloomingbuds, and we also have a Remind, @mchsbuds. Join it, we need more members,” Hosan said.

Furthermore they are still in the process of improvements for the future of their club. But they’ll always be ready to invite more club members if anybody wants to join at whatever time.

Click on any of the links to support the Blooming Buds!
Instagram:@mchs.gardeners
Remind: @mchsbuds
Link to garden needs survey: docs.google.com