Birmingham, AL

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020

Project Category: Community Gardens

Description: This project expanded community garden facilities by renovating an existing trailer to provide restrooms, an office and a classroom/meeting space. The upgrades provide indoor space where Bush Hills Connections can host gardening classes. The garden also received new pet waste stations and hand and equipment sanitation stations. The garden -- once an abandoned school property -- is located within a food desert and provides fresh produce to 200 families. Additionally, it is a popular meeting place, particularly with older adults.

Delaware County, OH

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021

Project Category: Community Gardens

Description: To give older adult residents of an affordable housing complex a space to gather, SourcePoint and Age-Friendly Delaware County created an accessible community garden. Volunteers installed raised beds to enable gardeners to work without needing to kneel down. Additionally, they laid an ADA-complaint crushed gravel path, added accessible benches and erected an aluminum fence around the space. Today, St. Michael's Community Garden hosts programming for gardeners and non-gardeners alike, including healthy cooking classes. Project organizers say the garden has helped combat social isolation, and senior housing residents now grow produce in their own backyard, which helps reduce their grocery bills.

Chesapeake, VA

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022

Project Category: Community Gardens

Description: This project installed various equipment and features to a community garden, including raised-bed boxes, planter benches, a modular trellis system, an outdoor sink and a rain barrel.