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Scarborough, ME
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: Older adults in Scarborough face challenges staying active and managing heating costs on fixed incomes. Project GRACE expanded three community gardens, adding 15 new beds and growing over 800 pounds of produce for local food pantries. It also hosted a "Snug It Up" workshop for 75 older adults, offering weatherization tips, free DIY supplies and emergency fuel assistance for dozens of households. The gardens fostered social engagement and healthy eating, while the workshop helped residents prepare for winter. "I applaud the essential work... that helps our community to stay comfortably warm and snugged up this winter," one attendee wrote.
Project description was created using generative AI and then reviewed for accuracy.
St. Louis, MO
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: STL Village partnered with volunteers from the community to restore the Lewis Place Community Garden, which had gone unplanted during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Volunteers cleared the site of overgrowth, refurbished garden beds, installed a storage shed and planted and watered vegetables, shrubs and trees. Neighborhood residents formed a garden committee charged with maintaining the site going forward. STL Village also created a resource guide for local older adults with a specific focus on services for low-income families.
Custer, SD
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: After flooding destroyed the Custer Community Garden, the Custer Area Economic Development set out to relocate the beloved amenity to a new site. The organization created a new garden at a local high school, installing 16 raised beds, including wheelchair accessible and raised options to accommodate gardeners of all ability levels. Workers laid compost and mulch at the site and installed fencing to keep out foraging wildlife. The school's lunch program now has access to excess produce grown in the garden, which also provides educational programming to the community. Project organizers report that since the improvements, leaders from neighboring communities have reached out for advice for creating their own gardens.
Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects
Anadarko, OK
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2019
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: Delaware Nation created an accessible community garden in an area designated as a food desert. Residents of all ages use the garden to plant and harvest fresh fruits and vegetables. The garden includes 25 raised beds, constructed at different heights to accommodate older adults and people with mobility differences. Two beds are specifically designated for growing native plants. Delaware Nation also purchased gardening tools, including wheelbarrows, trellises, garden hoses, an irrigation system and reusable frost blankets. Much of the produce grown onsite is used in meals prepared for the tribe's older members. Tables, shade umbrellas and a charcoal grill allow tribal members to gather and enjoy produce from the garden together.
Chickasha, OK
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: As part of wider efforts to revitalize Chickasha's downtown, the Chickasha Economic Development Council made several streetscape improvements. To increase foot traffic to local businesses, volunteers decorated crosswalks with pavement art and created a mural. They also installed benches and bike tracks. The branding effort is meant to redefine the town's commercial district and connect it with the surrounding neighborhoods. Project organizers hope to build on the improvements in the future, adding additional public art and pedestrian infrastructure.
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