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2018 AARP Community Challenge Grantee
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Public places
└ Community Gardens
└ Community Gardens
The JOY (Just Older Youth) Center's staff saw a need to build connections and prevent loneliness. To do this, the Center added a new community garden. Engaging the expertise of a local gardener, Center staff built elevated garden beds, designed to be easier on aging knees than ground-level plots. They also purchased seedlings for the space. Today, the garden isn't just producing broccoli and collard greens. Project organizers say the garden is also a nurturing place for older adults to get together, socialize and learn new skills. And over the growing season, nearly 100 community members worked in the gardens.
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Providence, RI
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: To give residents of the Amos House shelter program opportunities to socialize, as well as access to fresh produce, the Southside Community Land Trust created a community garden at the St. Martin De Porres Center. Participants in the Trust's youth program worked to build raised garden beds onsite, added seating and painted murals. To honor residents' African, Caribbean and Central American roots, organizers chose a tropical theme for the artwork. The effort was intergenerational -- older adult residents supervised the youth workers as they planted herbs and vegetables. Today, Amos House residents are involved in all aspects of tending the garden, from planting to harvesting and meal preparation. Additionally, the nonprofit's soup kitchen uses vegetables from the garden to provide tens of thousands of meals to food insecure families each year.
Lawton, OK
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: This project will create a community garden where Comanche elders can grow vegetables and flowers. Participating gardeners will plan, tend and harvest their plots and distribute their produce to the community.
Woodbury, MN
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: To address the lack of gardening space for residents in apartments and facilities for older adults, the community garden expanded from 48 to 96 plots and added 35 raised beds plus 12 ADA-compliant wheelchair-accessible beds. Volunteers, including an Eagle Scout, built the beds, and educational sessions engaged older adults and others in the community. The garden now promotes healthy eating, mental well-being and social ties, with over 120 pounds of produce being donated to a local food shelf. One gardener called the raised beds "a perfect solution" for older adults and people with disabilities. She shared her excitement about growing vegetables again.
Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects
Florida City, FL
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: Food insecurity in Florida City left many residents, including older adults, without reliable access to fresh produce or safe spaces to connect. Sprout Up introduced aeroponic gardening, creating a shared garden where volunteers grow fruits and vegetables for community fridges and choice pantries. The project not only improves food access but also fosters social ties and a sense of purpose. "Being able to come to the garden and have someone to talk to has really made me feel less alone," said one participant.
Cutler Bay, FL
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2017
Project Category: Park enhancements
Description: To encourage residents to exercise and socialize with one another, the Town of Cutler Bay added accessible exercise equipment - with a shade canopy to keep visitors cool -- to Cutler Ridge Park. Although Hurricane Irma damaged the park during installation, the new equipment now gives older adults the opportunity to improve their balance, strength, flexibility, range of motion and coordination. Project organizers say many older adults visit the park with their children and using the new fitness machines, which resemble playground equipment, can feel more like playing than exercising. Since the project's completion. the Town has installed similar fitness equipment at two other local parks.
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