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Cultivating Connections Montana (2022) Print
2022 AARP Community Challenge Grantee
Project Category
Public places
└ Community Gardens
└ Community Gardens
This project engaged older adults to serve as hosts of a community garden in their own yards or elsewhere. Teen volunteers maintained the gardens, with hosts doing the watering and receiving a share of the produce. The hosts donated the rest of the produce.
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See More Projects Like This One
Naknek, AK
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: This project will convert an unused lot, situated in a central location next to a lake, into a community garden with raised beds and accessible benches to accommodate older residents.
Cabot, AR
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: This project will create a Crops and Canines program, enabling older adults to grow their own food while enjoying the company of supervised dogs to reduce stress, anxiety and depression.
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.
Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects
Hamilton, MT
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023
Project Category: Roadway/sidewalks/crosswalk improvement
Description: This project will improve safety for road users by installing three neighborhood traffic circles in historic residential areas. It will also develop and implement pop-up traffic calming strategies on a local street.
Missoula, MT
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020
Project Category: Roadway/sidewalks/crosswalk improvement
Description: Missoula's Transportation Planning hoped to improve safety at a busy intersection in the Riverfront neighborhood, while also giving people a space to gather. First, project organizers asked residents and local business owners for their ideas to improve the streetscape. Ahead of activating the intersection, the city's public works department made upgrades to pavement and water mains. Based on community feedback, Missoula Transportation Planning then created bulb-outs, which extend the curb into the intersection, giving pedestrians extra space, making them more visible to drivers and shortening the distance needed to cross the road. Curb ramps make the crosswalks accessible. To create a seating area, they also created two parklets -- mini-parks that fit in the footprint of on-street parking spaces. The parklets featured art, a space to park bikes and decorative foliage.
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AARP Montana State Office
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Suite 301
Helena, MT 59601
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