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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.
Project description was created using generative AI and then reviewed for accuracy.
Scarborough, ME
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: Older adults in Scarborough face challenges staying active and managing heating costs on fixed incomes. Project GRACE expanded three community gardens, adding 15 new beds and growing over 800 pounds of produce for local food pantries. It also hosted a "Snug It Up" workshop for 75 older adults, offering weatherization tips, free DIY supplies and emergency fuel assistance for dozens of households. The gardens fostered social engagement and healthy eating, while the workshop helped residents prepare for winter. "I applaud the essential work... that helps our community to stay comfortably warm and snugged up this winter," one attendee wrote.
Project description was created using generative AI and then reviewed for accuracy.
Atlanta, GA
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: 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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Columbia, SC
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2017
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: The City of Columbia set out to provide outdoor seating along Main Street, an area that attracts pedestrians and hosts events that draw visitors from the surrounding region. Project organizers say that people now have a spot to work on their laptops, enjoy a cup of coffee or take in a meal from nearby food trucks. Although staff originally removed and stored the tables at the end of each day, their popularity spurred the City to leave them out permanently. And when the COVID-19 pandemic hit, the colorful tables and chairs provided residents with a safe space to gather outside. Because the seating is heavily used, the City has explored more ways to provide seating on Main Street.
Columbia, SC
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020
Project Category: Public space activation
Description: As part of efforts to activate space and increase the vitality of Columbia's downtown, this project created the city's first parklet. Parklets transform on-street parking spaces into public gathering spaces. Originally intended to be temporary, Columbia's miniature park consists of a ground-level, fenced-in deck featuring an art installation, a cafe table and chairs and new planters. While several nearby restaurants lack outdoor seating space, the parklet remedied this, giving visitors a space to eat and socialize. To gather public feedback about the new space, city staff displayed a QR code onsite, which linked to an online survey. Spurred by the success of this project, organizers made plans to add more parklets downtown. City staff have also looked into creating a parklet ordinance, which would allow local businesses to create similar spaces in the future.
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