Today we’d like to introduce you to Mim Michelove.
Hi Mim, so excited to have you with us today. What can you tell us about your story?
I think of myself as a simple person who has a deep yearning to do my part in improving quality of life for us all. It could be as simple as showing love for my friends and colleagues through a good meal and a helping hand. Or what became a love letter to my community – creating educational gardens and farms and helping to establish a healthier school lunch program. As my goals matured, the universe threw me an interesting curveball – a hidden skill. Vision. Life has a funny way of presenting you with what you need to accomplish your goals, even if it’s unexpected. I’m not sure why, but I can see how several elements can come together to create something that doesn’t yet exist. I want to use that vision to contribute to my community. To that end, many of my personal passions are satisfied through my nonprofit work, like gardening, farming, the environment, using my hands to create, collaborating, cooking and preparing real food, and sharing whatever I learn along this crazy life journey.
When I became aware of injustices around food access in my own community, my life took a radical turn. Though we started years ago with a leaning toward environmental education, my nonprofit Healthy Day Partners® has evolved into an extension of my belief that food should be grown or sourced as close to our plates as possible for personal health and the health of the planet, and that everyone deserves equal access to high-quality food and education as a basic human right no matter their zip code or income level.
Alright, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Smooth road? No. Haha! I’ve learned the hard way that change is difficult and slow. System change is difficult and slow. Culture shift is difficult and slow. Educating people can be difficult and slow. Growing as a human is definitely difficult and slow. While creating a one-acre educational farm, the Straight 2 the Plate® farm-to-school program, and then the 10-acre educational farm and school campus called Farm Lab in Encinitas, I heard the word “no” a lot. It forced me to be more creative. I encountered haters, conflict, and deliberate subversion. Luckily, the majority of people I’ve worked with have been wonderfully open-minded, collaborative, supportive, and excited to invest in creating healthier and more resilient communities. In my experience, there is a direct correlation between the collaborative capacity of a person or organization and the meaningful, lasting impact of the work accomplished.
As you know, we’re big fans of you and your work. For our readers who might not be as familiar what can you tell them about what you do?
As the CEO and President of the Encinitas-based nonprofit Healthy Day Partners®, I now get to say “yes” to the projects that most interest me, and partner with the organizations that most excite me. While we create and support school-district-wide garden programs in economically disadvantaged communities, the past two years (!) of the pandemic offered us opportunities to create more hunger relief programing. I love our partnership with SDG&E, donating fruit trees to schools and community gardens in San Diego’s Promise Zone and low-income neighborhoods through the Healthy Communities Fruit Tree Program. This program addresses greenhouse gas reduction and food insecurity while providing beauty and bounty to the region. Our Grab & Grow Gardens® program launched at the very beginning of the pandemic, providing small garden kits with mature, organic seedlings and instructions in English and Spanish to help food-insecure folks learn how to grow their own healthy food – even if it’s in a bucket. Over the past two years, these kits have been distributed through various local hunger relief agency partners like Jewish Family Service, Kitchens for Good, and Community Housing Works. This program relies on a lot of amazing partners from individual donors to funders like SDG&E Environmental Champions, the North County COVID Response Fund, and the Rancho Santa Fe Garden Club, and suppliers like TERI, Inc., Altman Plants, Nan Sterman Waterwise Gardener, and Grangetto’s.
And our Homegrown Hunger Relief program empowers every resident to help end hunger by donating their excess garden produce at our public donation station coolers in the main parking lot of the San Diego Botanic Garden, the Encinitas Library, and at Healthy Day Partners® – Harvest Yard in Encinitas every Sunday. We collect, sort, and donate all of the donated produce to the local food pantries. Neighbors are helping to nourish neighbors in need in their own community. We can help end local hunger one home garden at a time!
One of our most exciting partnerships is with Olivewood Gardens and National School District (NSD). Thanks to our Farm to School grant from the United States Department of Agriculture, and a commitment from the school district, we have been able to revive, beautify, and activate all 10 of the school gardens, and hire staff for a district-wide garden science program for all 5,000 K-6th grade students. Olivewood Gardens and Healthy Day Partners® have spent a few years working toward the goal of supporting all of NSD’s economically disadvantaged students with world-class garden education opportunities. Now that we are seeing and hearing about the kids’ raw excitement for the garden, it is one of the most heart-filling experiences of my personal and professional life. No doubt, this truly collaborative partnership will help grow healthier kids, a healthier future, and a more resilient community.
Any big plans?
This April, Healthy Day Partners® is participating in Jimbo’s Earth Month celebration. We are excited to share our Homegrown Hunger Relief program with the whole community. San Diegan’s can donate their excess garden produce to help nourish neighbors in need at our “Pop up Pantries”. As a gift, you will receive a free Grab & Grow Gardens® seasonal seedling kit to grow even more food to help end hunger in our area. Your excess citrus, greens, and herbs are needed! Any amount helps! Donation dates are:
Saturday, April 2nd at Jimbo’s 4S Ranch 12-4
Wednesday, April 6th at Jimbo’s Carmel Valley/Del Mar 12-4
Tuesday, April 19th at Jimbo’s Carlsbad 12-4
Thursday, April 28th at Jimbo’s Escondido 12-4
Contact Info:
- Email: mim@healthydaypartners.org
- Website: healthydaypartners.org
- Instagram: Healthy Day Partners
- Facebook: Healthy Day Partners; Homegrown Hunger Relief
Image Credits:
Photos Courtesy Healthy Day Partners
