St. Louis, MO

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020

Project Category: Community Gardens

Description: STL Village partnered with volunteers from the community to restore the Lewis Place Community Garden, which had gone unplanted during the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic. Volunteers cleared the site of overgrowth, refurbished garden beds, installed a storage shed and planted and watered vegetables, shrubs and trees. Neighborhood residents formed a garden committee charged with maintaining the site going forward. STL Village also created a resource guide for local older adults with a specific focus on services for low-income families.

Pablo, MT

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2022

Project Category: Community Gardens

Description: This project created a greenhouse and an adjacent garden and supplied them with soil, cultivation materials and other necessities. The Confederated Salish and Kootenai Tribes gave the resulting produce to meal programs and individual families.

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.