Ranson, WV

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2024

Project Category: Community Gardens

Description: This project will add heritage apple trees to a community garden, activating an unused space in the floodplain. Once planted, a trail with a bench will connect the new orchard to the rest of the gardens and an indoor walking path popular with older adults.

Newark, NJ

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023

Project Category: Community Gardens

Description: This intergenerational gardening project will provide girls aged 8 to 18 with an opportunity to pair up with elderly residents to garden together and grow produce in an area that is considered a food desert.

Salt Lake City, UT

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2018

Project Category: Community Gardens

Description: Salt Lake City's Taylorsville neighborhood is home to refugee families from Syria, Myanmar and Afghanistan. Many new residents, however, struggle with social isolation. To help people feel connected, Salt Lake County created a community garden at the local senior center. Volunteers built four raised beds and the County provided ergonomic gardening equipment, seeds and starter plants. Project organizers say the opportunity to garden gives older adults -- who were often farmers and ranchers in their native countries -- a renewed sense of purpose. Gardening also allows them to form relationships with their neighbors.