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Lifecycle Building Center (2020) Print
2020 AARP Community Challenge Grantee
Project Category
Public places
└ Community Gardens
└ Community Gardens
Using donated recycled and salvaged lumber, the Lifecycle Building Center built 14 Little Free Pantries and 10 garden beds. The Center used the fabrication work to demonstrate how the construction industry can help strengthen communities by prioritizing the reuse of materials. Mounted at chest height for easy access and placed in public areas, the pantries allow community members experiencing food insecurity to collect items as needed. Local nonprofit Friends of Refugees stocked the pantries with 1,000 pounds of food. The raised-bed planters went to the homes of refugee gardeners.
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Findlay, OH
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2025
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: This project will create an accessible garden area in a community garden with raised beds and gathering spaces designed for residents age 50-plus. It aims to promote food security and intergenerational engagement.
St. Petersburg, FL
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: Inflation and food deserts left many older adults in St. Petersburg struggling with nutrition and isolation. The housing authority revitalized its community garden with six raised beds, shaded seating and irrigation. It also hosted workshops on sustainable gardening, budgeting and healthy cooking. Residents helped plant and harvest produce for a community pantry, creating opportunities for exercise and social connection. The project improved access to fresh food and reduced stress, with plans for expanded programming. One participant said, "The garden is important to me because it has everlasting memories... I would love to see this garden flourish again."
Madison Heights, MI
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: The Love Garden at the Chinese Community Center is popular with Madison Heights residents. To make the space more accessible and welcoming, the Association of Chinese Americans expanded the garden with a greenhouse, gazebo and new benches. The greenhouse enables the organization to grow more plants and involve new community members, and serves as a service and storage area for the annual Healthy Gardening Fair. With its contemplative environment, the gazebo offers an inviting, safe gathering place for community members to gather for meditation, Tai-Chi and light exercise. Organizers hope the upgraded amenities help improve residents' physical and mental health.
Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects
Atlanta, GA
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2018
Project Category: Accessory dwelling units, tiny homes and manufactured housing
Description: To educate the public about options to age in place, MicroLife Institute created a 4-minute informational video on accessory dwelling units -- small dwellings built on a property alongside a preexisting single-family home. The video features firsthand accounts of what it's like to live in or build an ADU. For Katharine Connell, a young Atlanta mother and homeowner, an ADU means multi-generational housing for her aging mother. My mom and I have always been very close, she tells viewers. For others in the video, renting out an ADU led to supplemental income or provided tenants with more affordable option, helping them remain in their neighborhood. Organizers say they hope the video serves as a tool to mobilize residents to demand their local commissions permit more housing options, including ADUs.
Atlanta, GA
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: Woodruff Park's game cart allows visitors to borrow games, sports equipment and other recreation items at no charge. To improve the kiosk's appearance and attract visitors, the Atlanta Downtown Improvement District partnered with local graphic design students to create highly visible decals. They also used checkerboard decals to convert round park tables into game tables. Finally, the organization purchased new supplies for the game cart, including coloring books, watercolor paint kits and markers and crayons. Following the improvements, the BID used the tabled to host chess tournaments, which attracted new visitors to the park.
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