Juncos, PR

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023

Project Category: Community Gardens

Description: LTRG conducted workshops designed to improve the community's disaster preparedness. Topics included first aid, communication, preparing for earthquakes and hurricanes and gardening and food preservation. Additionally, residents participated in rescue simulations and certified first response team training. With a community garden at its center, the project provided infrastructure, including solar-powered lighting and a water storage tank, for use following disasters. Organizers say the improvements will allow their site to provide shelter during emergencies, as well as a place for community members to access meals and a place to shower.

Montclair, NJ

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024

Project Category: Community Gardens

Description: A local Boy Scout troop will work alongside older residents to create a vegetable garden featuring raised beds and an accessible pathway. The township will share produce from the garden with a local food pantry.

Green Bay, WI

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021

Project Category: Community Gardens

Description: The Farmory is a nonprofit urban farm, where community members can learn about sustainable agriculture and aquaponics. However, many of the farm's features were inaccessibly to visitors who rely on wheelchairs or other mobility devices. To make the space more accessible, the Farmory installed a new aquaponics system, which is low to the ground. This allows visitors to see the farm's growing systems without needing to climb onto a ladder. The system consists of four growing beds, water tanks, a germinating chamber and a harvesting area. Today, produce grown with the new aquaponics system also helps combat food insecurity -- the Farmory donates about ten pounds of greens each week to the county's Aging and Disability Resource Center.