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2018 AARP Community Challenge Grantee
Project Category
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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St. George, AK
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: On remote St. George Island, access to food is challenging. Grocery shipments arrive by plane, which are sometimes grounded due to inclement weather. This makes food insecurity a concern, especially among lower-income residents. Organizers with Aleutian Pribilof Islands Association hoped to help the community grow its own produce. They renovated a rundown greenhouse, adding a new door, equipment and raised garden beds. Local children contributed by creating a wooden sign for the space. Additionally, project organizers installed seating, creating a community gathering space. Organizers plan to continue to upgrade the greenhouse, which provides vegetables for congregate meals for community elders.
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.
Rugby, ND
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: To help Rugby's residents access fresh produce, the Geographical Center Historical Society worked to turn an underused outdoor space into a fruit orchard. The space sits on the campus of the Prairie Village Museum, which is located in a food desert. To activate the space, Society reseeded the grass and planted fruit trees and shrubs. They also installed ADA-accessible park benches, tables and bike racks. Project organizers plan to invite students to the orchard for demonstrations on techniques for picking, washing and preserving the fruits.
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.
Project description was created using generative AI and then reviewed for accuracy.
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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