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Pike Place Market Foundation (2019) Print
2019 AARP Community Challenge Grantee
Project Category
Public places
└ Community Gardens
└ Community Gardens
This project spruced up the rooftop Pike Place Market Secret Garden, allowing volunteer gardeners to produce more fruits and vegetables there. All produce grown in the garden is provided to the Pike Market Food Bank, with nearly 500 fresh herbs and vegetables donated each year. In addition, the garden hosts intergenerational activities organized by a nearby assisted living facility, a childcare center and a preschool. The Pike Market Food Bank also received an AARP Community Challenge grant in 2019, which allowed it to install directional signage to help visitors find its hard-to-reach location. Established in 1982, the Pike Place Market Foundation aims to help low-income and unhoused Seattle residents who live in the neighborhood.
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Bowdoinham, ME
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2017
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: The Town of Bowdoinham provided elevated planters to six residents who, because of disabilities, could not maintain traditional, in-the-ground gardens. Members of the local Masons Lodge constructed the raised beds and delivered soil to each recipient. To showcase the planters, the Town hosted a community meal featuring local produce, which included a presentation about the benefits of raised beds. In addition, the Town founded a garden club, which meets monthly.
Indianapolis, IN
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: Indianapolis' Far Eastside neighborhood needed accessible, public green space. Keep Indianapolis Beautiful partnered with the Community Alliance of the Far Eastside to transform a vacant lot into a community orchard with native shade trees, benches, accessible pathways, nature play space and public art. The orchard and green space, which are adjacent to a community center, also feature raised garden beds, fruit trees, native shrubs and more than 700 native perennial plants. Educational signage informs visitors about the benefits of playing in nature and the role of native plants.
Gloucester, VA
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: Many patients faced food insecurity, making it harder to manage chronic conditions like diabetes and hypertension. The clinic launched a food pantry and container garden, partnered with local groups and secured donated refrigerators and a freezer to store fresh produce. This effort began addressing a critical social determinant of health and sparked plans for a "food pharmacy" program tailored to chronic conditions.
Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects
Seattle, WA
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2019
Project Category: Improved wayfinding
Description: The Pike Market Food Bank, part of Seattle's landmark Pike Place Market, provides free meals, groceries, healthy activities and other assistance to more than 5,000 low-income and unhoused residents. But the food bank's location in the Market parking garage -- one floor below street level -- made it difficult to find. Staff worried this discouraged those in need from using the food bank's services. To solve this, the organization installed directional signs on exterior walls and near elevators to guide people to the site. Additionally, grant funds helped the food bank to paint its interior, making it more welcoming to clients.
Seattle, WA
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2018
Project Category: Engaging people in transportation options/safety
Description: Many parts of North Seattle lack sidewalk and bicycle infrastructure. To address this, Seattle Neighborhood Greenways launched its Home Zone initiative in the Licton Springs neighborhood. To collect community feedback on walkability, the organization connected with local leaders and conducted door-to-door surveys and walk audits. They also invited homeowners, renters, business owners, older adults and residents with disabilities to participate in a community design workshop. The engagement efforts resulted in a plan for wayfinding signs, traffic calming planter boxes and street murals. Since launching the effort, the City has allocated funding to conduct similar pilots in two other Seattle neighborhoods.
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