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Southside Community Land Trust (2022) Print
2022 AARP Community Challenge Grantee
Project Category
Public places
└ Community Gardens
└ Community Gardens
This project engaged young people to grow herbs and vegetables which were given to older adults. It also helped create a second cookbook that preserves the older adults' recipes and stories.
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Custer, SD
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: After flooding destroyed the Custer Community Garden, the Custer Area Economic Development set out to relocate the beloved amenity to a new site. The organization created a new garden at a local high school, installing 16 raised beds, including wheelchair accessible and raised options to accommodate gardeners of all ability levels. Workers laid compost and mulch at the site and installed fencing to keep out foraging wildlife. The school's lunch program now has access to excess produce grown in the garden, which also provides educational programming to the community. Project organizers report that since the improvements, leaders from neighboring communities have reached out for advice for creating their own gardens.
Paducah, KY
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: Organizers with the Paducah McCracken County Senior Center wanted a community garden for low-income residents. The center addressed this need by building a garden with ADA-compliant pathways, ramps and garden beds. The new space provides older adults in the community with fresh produce, opportunities for socializing with friends and neighbors and non-strenuous physical activity.
St. Petersburg, FL
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: This project will make a community garden accessible by constructing benches, an awning and raised beds for growing healthy, free food. The Housing Authority will also hold workshops on sustainable gardening, cooking and budgeting skills.
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: 2024
Project Category: Addressing community health
Description: This project will provide grocery carts and reusable bags at two food pantries, allowing customers who visit on foot to transport their groceries. In addition, the organization will add an outdoor shelter and seating to the Olneyville Food Pantry.
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