On April 22, marking both Earth Day and National Volunteer Week, Kaiser Permanente employees spent the morning at LEAF Urban Garden in Fremont. Braving rain and not afraid to get their hands dirty, they participated in three activities: clearing plant beds and putting in a new crop, sheet mulching and weeding.
Dr. Seema Sidhu, a Kaiser Obstetrician who participated, said, “Earth Day brings us back to the fact that everything originates from the ground up.” Health starts with the environment people live in and the food that comes from it.
Bettina Grab, Director of Development, Partnerships and Marketing at LEAF, shared that the nonprofit does four things: educate the community on regenerative farming, grow crops to donate to food banks, conduct soil science, and bring people together to protect the land.
Grab said, “I think what Kaiser is doing today kind of covers all of it, because they’re learning about what we’re doing and why they’re doing what we asked them to do, they’re helping us grow the food, they’re learning a little about soil science and I hope that they’re connecting with each other because they’re out of the office and outside in nature and getting their hands dirty.”
