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Bush Hills Connections Inc. (2020) Print
2020 AARP Community Challenge Grantee
Project Category
Public places
└ Community Gardens
└ Community Gardens
This project expanded community garden facilities by renovating an existing trailer to provide restrooms, an office and a classroom/meeting space. The upgrades provide indoor space where Bush Hills Connections can host gardening classes. The garden also received new pet waste stations and hand and equipment sanitation stations. The garden -- once an abandoned school property -- is located within a food desert and provides fresh produce to 200 families. Additionally, it is a popular meeting place, particularly with older adults.
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Hartford, CT
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2017
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: KNOX rebuilt and upgraded the Hartford's Broad Street Community Garden to allow people of all ages and abilities to easily garden there. They added 22 raised garden beds, making plots more accessible to children, people with disabilities and older residents. Additionally, the organization hired a contractor to repair a garden fence and purchased a picnic table and a pergola -- a structure to create shade for gardeners. Since then, KNOX continues to create gardening opportunities for Hartford residents. The Hartford Courant reported in 2021 that KNOX manages 20 community gardens with a cumulative five acres of space. These include nearly 660 plots, each with an average size of 12 square feet.
Flint, MI
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: The project recruited volunteers and installed raised beds at community gardens located at food banks and centers for older adults.
Shakopee, MN
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: When a new development threatened to displace an active community garden, residents of Shakopee were disappointed. But the City of Shakopee saw an opportunity to move the garden in a more centrally accessible location near a popular bicycle and pedestrian route. This project added a concrete patio, new garden beds, seating, bike racks and trash and recycling bins to the new garden. With ADA-compliant features, including a concrete path and benches, the space is accessible to gardeners of all ages and abilities. Since the relocation, the garden provides fresh produce to families in need throughout Shakopee.
Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects
Birmingham, AL
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023
Project Category: Walkability
Description: The project will increase walkability in Birmingham neighborhoods by using walk audits to evaluate them. The data will be shared with community groups so they can see the challenges that residents aged 50 face, and highlight the need for safer, more accessible streets, sidewalks, paths and trails.
Birmingham, AL
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Bikeability
Description: For years, Birmingham's busy Titusville neighborhood did not have a strong north/south connector for pedestrians and bicyclists. To address this, the Freshwater Land Trust installed a buffered bike lane -- the Titusville Connector -- along First Street South for five blocks to create a safe and equitable alternative transportation and recreation route for residents living in and around the community. The bike lane, which is located next to an elementary school and links to the multi-modal Neighborway path, allows residents to reach local amenities and the local bus rapid transit route. The Connector's brightly painted lane runs between the sidewalk and parallel parking spaces, making it the first, separated in-street trail in Birmingham.
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