Local Heroes 2023: Omar Gallardo, Community Hero
Omar Gallardo grew up among the mango orchards of Michoacán, Mexico, and the Geyserville vineyards in Sonoma County as the child of immigrant farmworkers. He cherished the time he spent outdoors with his family: eating corn fresh off the cob and gathering at the sprawling Howarth Park and Spring Lake near Santa Rosa, known to the local Latinx community as “el parque de los patos,” after the ducks and waterfowl that roam the area.
More than a decade ago, Gallardo joined LandPaths, a conservation and environmental education organization based in Santa Rosa. He became manager of a two-acre community garden called Bayer Farm in Santa Rosa’s Roseland, a neighborhood of primarily Latinx and working-class residents surrounded by freeways. The garden was a vacant lot fenced in by barbed wire before LandPaths stepped in. Under Gallardo’s guidance, the garden has flourished as a bridge between worlds.
“Why is a conservation organization investing into a community garden?” Gallardo asks. “When I came on board, we really started to look at this community garden as this starting point for education and involvement beyond the garden.”