Lincoln, NE

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020

Project Category: Community Gardens

Description: NeighborWorks Lincoln turned a vacant lot into a community garden. Volunteers installed fifteen raised garden beds, along with lighting and an arbor entranceway. Other improvements include walkway and seating. Residents have access to fresh produce grown onsite. In addition, project organizers recruited experienced gardeners to help beginners learn the ropes. Today, residents -- many of whom represent the area's Latino, Iraqi and Karen communities -- use the garden as a space to socialize. Locals have told NeighborWorks that they feel safer walking past the site now that it's a garden instead of an abandoned lot. And work on the garden paved the way for future projects as well. Organizers also said they worked with the City of Lincoln to work around rules restricting planting in a public right-of-way, which helped make future gardening plans feasible.

Cabot, AR

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023

Project Category: Community Gardens

Description: Limited access to fresh food and green space left many residents, especially older adults without healthy options or social outlets. To change that, the organization built community garden beds next to the local adult center, added benches and a storage shed and began creating signage. The gardens will provide fresh produce and host educational programs with local farmers. The project paired gardening and interactions with adoptable dogs to reduce stress and foster connection. They aim to improve nutrition, mental health and community engagement.

Project description was created using generative AI and then reviewed for accuracy.

Tacoma, WA

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021

Project Category: Community Gardens

Description: Many families in Tacoma struggle to access fresh, nutritious food. To allow residents to harvest vegetables in their own neighborhoods, Food is Free planted garden plots throughout the city. Organizers installed raised garden beds in residents' front yards, in tree boxes and in the public right-of-way along the city's sidewalks. Food is Free ensured the gardens met the City's code requirements. Each garden produces about 100 pounds of produce annually. Gardeners get to keep a fifth of their harvest, with the rest offered to residents during food share events held in a local park. In addition to increasing food access, project organizers say the effort helped participants -- including older adults -- become more engaged with one another.