Az Daily Star: Community co-op idea takes root

Fruits and vegetables for Lupe Carrizosa's meals are just-picked fresh.

Gail Ryser needs little municipal water to irrigate her landscape.

Both central-area Barrio Anita residents took advantage of cooperative programs to shape their gardens and landscapes.

In each program, participants donate time working on someone else's project in exchange for cooperative members helping them.

Carrizosa, who cannot work because of a disability, qualified to join the Community Food Bank Gardening Co-operative for low-income households. After she met the requirements of attending three food-bank gardening classes and helping dig a plot for another family, a group formed her garden in December.

The food bank provides seeds, seedlings and gardening help for a year.

Carrizosa picks chiles, tomatoes, lettuce, eggplant and herbs from her garden as she needs them for meals for her, her daughter and mother.

"We pick usually what we eat," she says.

She's also made friends with fellow gardeners in the cooperative. It's a goal of the food bank.

"The whole idea is to connect gardeners to other sources of support," says Melissa Mundt, food-production education coordinator. "Our goal is to create connections with gardens."

Ryser, who manages a National Science Foundation grant program, couldn't afford the cost of installing a rainwater-harvesting system.

"I did call around and got quotes from two different companies," Ryser says. "It was cost-prohibitive for me."

Then she found the Watershed Management Group (WMG) Co-op. Co-op members attend free hands-on workshops during which they create earthworks, water-collection and -directing systems, and gardens, among other projects, on site.