See More Projects Like This One

Lexington, KY

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2019

Project Category: Community Gardens

Description: Organizers with Seedleaf hoped to provide a more comfortable experience for the many older adults who maintain one of its free community gardens. To do this, Seedleaf provided ergonomic garden tools -- including shovels and trowels -- designed for people with arthritis to use. They also purchased portable, raised seats that gardeners can place alongside garden beds, as well as a foldable wagon to collect harvested vegetables and a shed to house the new tools. To provide a space for visitors to rest and socialize, the nonprofit worked with a local carpenter to build two sturdy, cedar benches.

Arcata, CA

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023

Project Category: Community Gardens

Description: This project will support a community garden for a 60-unit apartment complex serving previously unhoused people to improve their nutrition and provide opportunities to socialize. It will include raised garden beds and accessible paths to accommodate residents who have limited mobility.

St. Louis, MO

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022

Project Category: Community Gardens

Description: This project designed and built two areas for peaceful reflection within a community garden--one with a wooden arbor and vining fruit, the other with a fountain and Zimbabwean sculpture. Both include seating.

Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects

Akron, OH

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021

Project Category: Accessibility of amenities

Description: Akron's North Hill neighborhood is home to many Asian and Pacific Islander immigrants and refugees displaced by famine and war. Many immigrant families rent garden plots at Akron Cooperative Farms, with multiple generations working together to grow produce. To better meet the community's needs, Asian Services in Action constructed an enclosed pavilion for the cooperative's neighborhood farmers market. Asian Services in Action partnered with TRY Ministries -- which provides jobs skills training to formerly incarcerated people -- and the City of Akron stepped in to lay a level, concrete floor for the space. Replacing tents, the pavilion offers vendors and shoppers protection from inclement weather, as well as shade on sunny days. This makes the market more accessible, giving allowing residents to purchase culturally important fresh vegetables, which are often unavailable at local grocery stores. Project organizers say the pavilion will also offer a venue for community events.

Akron, OH

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024

Project Category: Lifelong housing and accessibility

Description: The project will help support construction of a 16-unit affordable housing development in Akron. The homes will incorporate accessibility features for older adults.

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