Rolette County, ND

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020

Project Category: Community Gardens

Description: Project organizers planted fruit trees and native plants, enhancing a new garden on the Turtle Mountain Chippewa powwow grounds. The community gardening space featured turtle-shaped pots, which hold flowers and plants -- such as sweet grass and silver sage -- needed for traditional medicines. The Committee hopes fruit from the trees will feed community members and visitors to the annual Powwow celebration. Additionally, the popularity of the turtle-themed planters inspired a fundraising idea. Powwow organizers plan to create similar planters to sell in the future, with proceeds going toward running the Powwow.

South Coffeyville, OK

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024

Project Category: Community Gardens

Description: South Coffeyville lacked spaces for cultural engagement and healthy food access, leaving older adults isolated and youth disconnected from heritage. To address this, the organization created a year-round community garden using Cherokee Nation heirloom seeds for a Three Sisters planting, adding raised beds, benches and solar lighting. Elders taught youth traditional gardening methods, fostering intergenerational bonds and reducing isolation. Harvests included corn, squash, tomatoes and herbs, and plans for food preservation workshops will extend the impact. At the ribbon-cutting, one attendee called it "a wonderful way for both our elders and youth to work together."

New Orleans, LA

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2019

Project Category: Community Gardens

Description: Located within a food desert, the Upper 9th Ward of New Orleans has endured hurricanes and years of disinvestment. To give residents a gathering space, provide healthy food and create a respite from hot weather, Water Wise Gulf South and the Bunny Friend Neighborhood Association planned a new community orchard and vegetable garden. Volunteers cleared the site of debris and overgrowth. They then spread hardwood mulch in the orchard area and planted orange, lemon and persimmon trees. In the garden they built planter boxes and filled them with spinach, lettuce, mustard greens and passionflower vines. The site incorporates solar-powered charging stations a pavilion to provide shade and green infrastructure to manage stormwater runoff. Organizers hope the orchard and garden will allow for neighborhood events, access to fresh food and opportunities to educate locals about stormwater management and food production.