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Southside Community Land Trust (2022) Print
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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Philadelphia, PA
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2021
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: The Viola Street Community Garden has served the East Parkside neighborhood for half a century. But the garden faced challenges related to soil quality water access -- gardeners had to haul in water barrels from a fire hydrant down the block. And because the City owned the garden property, its future was uncertain. After Neighborhood Gardens Trust assumed ownership, they wanted to improve the space. The organization built raised beds, brought in fresh soil and installed a new irrigation system. Volunteers also laid down ADA-accessible pathways to accommodate gardeners of all ages and abilities. New fencing, as well as a picnic table and shade umbrella, made the space welcoming. Since the upgrades, the Trust has added new parcels to the garden's footprint. Organizers say the garden helps ensure food access for West Philadelphia families, helping heal disparities resulting from systemic racism and disinvestment.
New Orleans, LA
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: This project created a community garden with twenty raised-bed garden boxes. Dillard University Community Relations also held six healthy-cooking demonstrations and four health fairs.
Norwalk, CT
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2026
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: Key walkways and work areas will be leveled and upgraded across Fairgate Farm. These changes will reduce fall risk and allow older volunteers to garden safely.
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: Community Libraries of Providence addressed a safety gap that kept some neighbors from participating in outdoor library programs. At Knight Memorial Library, the ramp and stairs leading to the lawn lacked secure handrails, making access stressful for older adults using canes, walkers or wheelchairs. The project installed new handrails along both sides of the accessible ramp and repaired the handrail on the street staircase, building on earlier accessibility improvements. A patron wrote that she had stopped attending evening Spanish classes because she was afraid of the stairs. The improvements reopened outdoor programs to neighbors with limited mobility and advanced the library's longer-term accessibility goals.
Project description was created using generative AI and then reviewed for accuracy.
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