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2022 AARP Community Challenge Grantee
Project Category
Public places
└ Community Gardens
└ Community Gardens
Residents at a Providence center for older adults faced limited access to fresh food and social connection. Youth staff revitalized raised garden beds with vegetables and herbs for meals and transformed the courtyard with flowers and benches. They also interviewed older adults and hosted cooking demonstrations to gather cultural recipes for a second edition of a graphic novel-style cookbook. The cookbook combines stories and recipes by refugees, many of whom are age 50-plus, in order to preserve their experiences and food traditions. The garden became a source of joy and nutrition while fostering intergenerational ties. "Recording personal experiences for the cookbook is validating... and will help preserve their stories and cultures," said a partner at a local women's care center.
Project description was created using generative AI and then reviewed for accuracy.
Project description was created using generative AI and then reviewed for accuracy.
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Greensboro, NC
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: Creativity as a Catalyst for Inclusion, a project of the Creative Aging Network, worked to create a community garden and outdoor classroom for community events. Assembling a team of volunteers and community activists, they cleaned up the grounds, built raised garden beds, created walking paths and planted native vegetation. A local artisan created custom benches for the garden, created from the wood of a fallen tree on the property. To bring people into the space, local artists led a series of workshops onsite. Project organizers say activities programmed for the garden are meant to be inclusive and appeal to people of all ages and abilities.
Windsor Locks, CT
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: A paved alley between the adult center and the housing authority offered no greenery or seating, leaving residents without a welcoming outdoor space. The town converted the area into a vibrant patio with raised garden beds, ADA-compliant tables, bistro lights and decorative fencing. Older adults quickly began using the space for meals and conversation, and plans for a garden club and workshops are underway. The project has paved the way to creating a hub for social connection and intergenerational activities.
Tavernier, FL
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2018
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: The JOY (Just Older Youth) Center's staff saw a need to build connections and prevent loneliness. To do this, the Center added a new community garden. Engaging the expertise of a local gardener, Center staff built elevated garden beds, designed to be easier on aging knees than ground-level plots. They also purchased seedlings for the space. Today, the garden isn't just producing broccoli and collard greens. Project organizers say the garden is also a nurturing place for older adults to get together, socialize and learn new skills. And over the growing season, nearly 100 community members worked in the gardens.
Nearby AARP Community Challenge Projects
Providence, RI
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2019
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: Amos House, which serves unhoused and unemployed people and those living in poverty, developed a volunteer-managed garden to provide fresh ingredients for the organization's soup kitchen. Amos House installed four raised garden beds and two containers for growing herbs. The organization relied on labor from participants in its carpentry program and planted seeds donated by a local farm. Following construction of the 900-square-foot garden, Amos House recruited 20 volunteers age 50 and older to tend the garden. In the summer of 2019, the garden yielded produce valued at 6,500, which they used to prepare 15,000 meals. Residents of Amos House's shelter programs participate in gardening and harvesting, which project organizers say represented an important social activity during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Providence, RI
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2025
Project Category: Accessibility of amenities
Description: This project will install handrails along the concrete ramp and stairs at Knight Memorial Library, enhancing safety and accessibility for older adults and individuals using canes, walkers, or wheelchairs.
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