OUR STORY
Behind the Scenes
Here at The Incredible Edible Community Garden, we’re committed to investing our expertise in horticulture to create opportunities to educate, empower, and work hand-in-hand with communities to grow and sustain their own organic produce in community-based gardens and fruit orchards. Since the founding of the Incredible Edible Community Garden in 2009 by Dr. Mary Petit, we’ve been supporting our San Bernardino community members in a variety of ways and measuring our success not by monetary size, but by more qualitative measurements such as the scale and effectiveness of our efforts. Today, we are the largest agro-forestry program in San Bernadino County.
We are a completely volunteer run urban agroforestry 501(c) 3 non-profit transforming our local communities with urban growing spaces. Just imagine what we can achieve together! Click here, if you would like to volunteer.
Our overarching goals are:
1. To develop opportunities to educate and work with communities to grow their own organic produce in community-based gardens and fruit orchards.
2. To develop Green Infrastructure programs such as urban tree plantings, training, and community development for the betterment of public health of communities, and environmental, community, and economic health.
3. To effect community-based policy change to prepare for climate adaptation and food security in our underserved communities and achieve greater environmental and economic equity.
4. To promote environmental equity by fostering “green” programs, environmental awareness, healthy organic living, and a sense of community.
TEAM BIOS
Get to Know Us
DR. MARY PETIT
Founder and Co-Executive Director
Dr. Mary Petit – Mary is a healthcare professional and lifelong gardener. She has a Doctorate and post-Doc Residency in Clinical Pharmacy from the Univ. of Missouri and was trained at Kansas City General Hospital, an inner-city hospital serving the most disadvantaged communities. Her role models for community service and compassion for the underserved were her Italian grandfather and her Polish dad. Mary was in academics for 10 years in clinical practice, teaching and clinical research. She then moved into the pharmaceutical industry as an executive for 13 years in Big Pharma as VP Quality with responsibilities for 3 domestic manufacturing facilities and their Puerto Rico operations. She then took an executive position for 7 years at a small New York generic firm as VP Quality. Mary's relationship with the regulatory agencies and her attention to quality were invaluable to the survival of this company. She then moved into Sr. VP Operations where she built and received FDA approval for their flagship manufacturing facility in VA. During her last two years in the industry, she took on the role of Sr. VP of Proprietary Products and conducted national clinical trials which received FDA approval for a woman’s health care product that launched the generic company into a proprietary pharmaceutical firm which went public on the NYSE. Her research was published in numerous peer-reviewed medical and pharmacy journals, and she was nationally recognized in pharmaceutical organizations. Mary has managed hundreds of professional and union employees throughout her healthcare career and operational budgets over $30 million dollars.
Mary retired early and devoted much of her time to community service activities. She established an outreach program to seniors giving advice on how to navigate Medicare Part D Prescription Drug Program, obtain quality pharmaceuticals from Canada, and stretch their dollar in order to pay for proper therapy. She organized CPR and First Aid classes for her boating community in southwest Fl, and collected food and clothing for Bread of Life Mission in her community. After moving to southern CA in December 2007, Mary continued with community service. She was trained by County Fire and certified by Homeland Security as part of the San Antonio Heights Community Emergency Response Team (CERT). She was elected as a Board Member of her community's association and volunteered to manage her community's Backyard Produce Exchange. She founded the Incredible Edible Community Garden 501(c)3 non-profit organization in 2009 where she is now Co-Executive Director along with Eleanor and is committed to helping underserved and marginalized communities gain access to affordable healthy organic produce in order to break the cycle of nutrition-related diseases, and to be prepared for natural disasters. She advocates for fair and equitable services for all people.
Mary and Eleanor brought federal, state, and local grants, as well as individual donations into this under-served county and grew Incredible Edible Community Garden into the largest urban agro-forestry non-profit in the region. In 2019, Mary and Eleanor made the decision to sunset all Incredible Edible Community Garden programs with exception of the original community garden in Upland California to dedicate their time and resources to the Healing Grove Memorial Garden to enable the healing of surviving family members of those killed, those who survived the terrorist attack on December 2nd, 2015, as well as the community at large.
ELEANOR TORRES
co-Executive Director
Eleanor was recruited to be on the team of NASA’s historic Viking Mission to Mars at the age of 17 where she spent 2 years working on the project. Since the mid 1980’s Ms. Torres has evolved from a single-issue advocate for the homeless to a community leader whose work incorporates planning, housing, food systems security, jobs, economics, and local ecosystems. Ms. Torres also served 2 terms as a Commissioner on Children Youth for the City of Pasadena and Altadena Council Member where she developed and implemented the City of Pasadena Human Services. Ms. Torres facilitated the establishment of the Los Angeles Green Garden Council and administrated a 2.5 million-dollar grants program to implement the US Forestry Urban Greening Initiative. Her appointments have included the Seventh American Forestry Congress Communities Committee, White House Blue Ribbon Task Force on Environmental Equity under the Clinton Administration and on the White House Task Force for Sustainable Development during the Bush Administration. From 2015 to 2018 she sat on the California Air Resources Board Environmental Justice Advisory Committee and as well as the Advisory Committee for California Assemblyman Chris Holden. She also was a member of the working group to update the California Governor’s Initiative, Safeguarding California. Ms. Torres is also Founding Principal of Integrated Infrastructures a Sustainable Community Planning and Architectural Firm. In 2009 Ms. Torres began volunteering with Incredible Edible Community Garden and then became Co-Executive Director with Founder Mary Petit in 2012.
Under their direction Incredible Edible Community Garden committed its efforts to serving disadvantaged and marginalized communities in San Bernardino County. They brought federal, state, and local grants, as well as individual donations into this under-served county and grew Incredible Edible Community Garden into the largest urban agro-forestry non-profit in the region. In 2019, Mary and Eleanor made the decision to sunset all Incredible Edible Community Garden programs with exception of the original community garden in Upland California to dedicate their time and resources to the Healing Grove Memorial Garden to enable the healing of those surviving family members of those killed, those survived the terrorist attack on December 2nd, 2015, as well as the community at large.