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Garden Raised Bounty (2020) Print
2020 AARP Community Challenge Grantee
Project Category
Public places
└ Community Gardens
└ Community Gardens
Garden Raised Bounty installed 21 home gardens throughout Thurston County, giving the recipients access to healthy food and community connections. The organization adapted half of the gardens to meet accessibility needs and customized all of the gardens for specific recipients. Garden Raised Bounty also provided growing guides, online tutorials, seeds or starter plants, recipes and one-on-one support to ensure each garden's success. Its goal was to increase food security and provide for the mental and physical well-being of its recipients, many of whom reported the project had a positive impact on their communities and lives.
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New Orleans, LA
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: This project created a community garden with twenty raised-bed garden boxes. Dillard University Community Relations also held six healthy-cooking demonstrations and four health fairs.
Paducah, KY
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: Organizers with the Paducah McCracken County Senior Center wanted a community garden for low-income residents. The center addressed this need by building a garden with ADA-compliant pathways, ramps and garden beds. The new space provides older adults in the community with fresh produce, opportunities for socializing with friends and neighbors and non-strenuous physical activity.
Center Township, IN
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: The Edna Martin Christian Center set out to provide food access, recreation options and income opportunities for residents of the Martindale-Brightwood area by creating a new urban garden space. To extend the growing season, project organizers built a hoop house at its Henry Blair Farm and Urban Gardens. The Center installed raised garden beds at the site, designed for gardeners to use while standing. New walking paths also ensured the gardens' accessibility. In addition, the Center created a labyrinth for prayer and medication, as well as a farm stand made from a repurposed shipping container. Project organizers envision residents using the beds for entrepreneurial projects, such as growing flowers or vegetable seedlings to sell at the farm stand. They also anticipate the gardens' operation needs will create employment opportunities for local older adults.
Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects
Toledo, WA
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: The library will replace its building's roof, preserving an important community space in Toledo's downtown, which is recovering following a series of devastating fires.
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.
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