Our Residents

Antonia and Josefina Rivera and a friend take a break in the shade at the community garden at Springfield Housing Authority’s Riverview Apartments in the Brightwood section of the city.

Antonia and Josefina Rivera can be found most any summer day out in the lush garden that lines Sanderson and Whiting streets in the Brightwood section of the city.

In the mornings, the sisters weed and water. As the days heat up, they sit on a worn picnic table in the shade of a mammoth maple tree on the eastern edge of the two-acre Springfield Housing Authority plot, chatting with friends and fellow gardeners about family, the weather and whatever else might come up.
But the garden is always at the center of their focus.

“We love it,” said Antonia Rivera. “Everything about it is good. We get out early and work in the garden, we sit and talk in the shade. And we grow lots of good food.”

A gardener tends to his patch at the Riverview Apartments community garden.

The Rivera sisters are among 10 residents of the abutting Riverview Apartments, an elderly and handicapped SHA development, who toil the soil during summer months. Their crop is an abundant mix of goodies including beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, broccoli, onions, eggplant, corn, squash, herbs, and this year, even one tall tobacco plant.

The garden is organized and overseen each summer by SHA Resident Services Coordinator Amy Santiago, who assigns the 36 plots and makes sure the water is running and hoses are connected, along with anything else that might come up. Gardeners pay a seasonal fee of $15 for each plot, with some using two or more plots.

Since the gardening project began, a core group of eight, including the Rivera sisters, remains active. Santiago said there are 10 gardeners this year, many of them planting the ají dulce and cilantro that are popular in Latin American and Caribbean recipes.

Pink flowers make a colorful edge at the Riverview Apartments community garden.

“It’s a good thing. They’re out there every morning. They’re really into it, and it gets them out socializing as well as growing the garden,” Santiago said.

The Riverview gardeners have another ally: Wilfredo Reyes, residential supervisor for community service with the Hampden County Sherriff’s Office, and his crew of volunteers from the Ludlow jail.

Reyes leads a crew of four men who have their own, smaller garden behind the Riverview Apartments garage. While doing their own planting, pruning and harvesting, they pitch in and help out with the tenants’ garden.

“We fertilize the soil for them, and we give them our extra seedlings,” Reyes said, noting that all fertilizer is organic and good for the ground.

A plastic owl stands guard over produce flourishing this summer at the Riverview Apartments community garden.

“It’s great for the Riverview residents. They’re growing good, healthy food, and they’re helping each other out. Something like this builds a lot of camaraderie,” Reyes said.

Reyes’ crew gives away their harvest on Monday mornings outside SHA’s rental assistance office at 67 Sanderson St. Riverview gardeners keep, give away or sell their harvest.

Riverview gardeners Kiomara Cabrera said she always looks forward to the summer and her rewarding outdoor hobby.

“I like to garden, get outside and do something good for myself,” she said. “This year, the gardens are looking great. Everything’s good – tomatoes, broccoli, cucumbers, peppers – you name it.”