Community members taste seasonal bites at East Palo Alto nonprofit Fresh Approach’s Harvest Picnic fundraising event at its garden site on Sept. 27, 2025. Courtesy of Jeremy Dutra
BUDDING SUCCESS … A few months ago, the six-acre lot at 230 Demeter St. in East Palo Alto was barren, covered with woodchips and weeds sprouting through. Nonprofit Fresh Approach began leasing the space in June to create East Palo Alto’s only community garden, but imagined much more than that. Over time, the nonprofit hopes to construct outdoor cooking spaces, shelter for people seeking coverage in the rain, a free tool library and locations for workout classes among many other possibilities. Fresh Approach took its first step toward those goals after hosting its Harvest Picnic fundraising event at the new site on Sept. 27, raising $27,000. The “incredibly successful” event featured live music, a seasonal picnic and a silent auction at a now transformed space with gravel-paved walkways, wooden planters and saplings. Week by week, the garden has slowly made progress and a once-empty lot is now a “budding community garden” where Fresh Approach can teach workshops, build skills in urban farming and help residents grow food to share, nonprofit spokesperson Jeremy Dutra wrote in a statement to this publication. “But our vision is bigger: To expand from this quarter-acre of leased land, and to purchase at least one full acre here — creating a permanent hub for resilience, health, and food sovereignty in East Palo Alto,” Fresh Approach Executive Director Laura deTar said at the event. In a community that is still considered a “food desert,” with not many grocery stores or access to fresh produce, East Palo Alto faces a gap in food security, deTar said. The nonprofit believes the new garden could reconnect East Palo Alto with its agricultural roots, she wrote, in a place that was once farmland. “It restores not just land, but history — and builds a healthier future for generations to come,” she said. The nonprofit plans to launch a capital campaign in the next year to raise further funds and its current property at Bloomhouse, Dutra wrote, but in the meantime, it will continue to build its garden. Fresh Approach will host a special garden workshop day, sponsored by Titos, on Oct. 25 from 9 a.m. to 2 p.m. Volunteers will help install raised garden beds, shade structures, transplant trees and enjoy a free lunch and swag at the new garden. Anyone over 21 years old can sign up on Freshapproach.org.
JUST MARRIED! … Palo Alto Council member George Lu tied the knot this weekend to Athena Award-winning climate scientist Natalie Geise — but the public announcement of the wedding did not come from either party in the couple. Instead, Vice Mayor Vicki Veenker took time during her comments at the Oct. 6 City Council meeting to congratulate the newlyweds. “I’m getting that side-eye for embarrassing (Lu), but I’m just delighted,” Veenker said at the meeting. Both Lu and Geise are active participants in Palo Alto policymaking and advocacy. Lu previously served on the city’s Planning and Transportation Commission and made affordable housing one of his top priorities in his campaign for City Council. Geise is also a champion of affordable housing and pro-growth policies, but her educational background is in climate science. She received her doctorate at Stanford University and currently works at the SLAC National Accelerator Laboratory. She also serves as vice chair of the board at Palo Alto Forward, a nonprofit that advocates for more housing and transportation. But this year, she is taking her housing advocacy to new heights by running with a slate of pro-housing candidates for the executive committee of the Loma Prieta Sierra Club chapter in an effort to make denser housing a larger priority within the environmental organization. “Local policies and incentives for climate action are areas where the Peninsula and the Bay Area can serve as a model for the transitions needed nationally to fight the impact of climate change,” she wrote in her candidate bio.
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