Greenville, MS

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020

Project Category: Community Gardens

Description: As part of efforts to transform a vacant lot into a community garden, Greenville's Pilgrim Rest Baptist Church installed a new fence and hoop houses at the site. The hoop houses cover the beds and keep them warm, allowing gardeners to grow produce through the winter months. In addition, the church installed a sign to inform passersby about the Third and Spruce Community Garden. Since these improvements, project organizers made an agreement with a local food pantry to provide fresh produce to individuals and families facing food insecurity. During the 2021-2022 growing season, the garden produced about 900 pounds of fruits and vegetables. The Church also plans to hold gardening skills workshops and healthy food demonstrations for the community.

Greensboro, NC

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021

Project Category: Community Gardens

Description: Creativity as a Catalyst for Inclusion, a project of the Creative Aging Network, worked to create a community garden and outdoor classroom for community events. Assembling a team of volunteers and community activists, they cleaned up the grounds, built raised garden beds, created walking paths and planted native vegetation. A local artisan created custom benches for the garden, created from the wood of a fallen tree on the property. To bring people into the space, local artists led a series of workshops onsite. Project organizers say activities programmed for the garden are meant to be inclusive and appeal to people of all ages and abilities.

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.