Greenville County, SC

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020

Project Category: Addressing community health

Description: Mill Community Ministries hoped to increase the amount of healthy food it could provide to residents through its FoodShare program. To facilitate this, the organization purchased a refrigerated tractor trailer, which increased its cold storage capacity. Thanks to the trailer, Mill Village Farms delivered six times more deeply discounted produce in 2021 compared to the previous year, helping combat food insecurity in Greenville County. Project organizers say the increased storage capacity also helped expand Mill Village's network of partner organizations.

Lansing, MI

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023

Project Category: Addressing community health

Description: This project will create a senior fitness membership for residents aged 60 and older, providing access to a fitness center, drop-in activities and an instructor to lead fitness and nutrition classes.

Project description was created using generative AI and then reviewed for accuracy.

Hyattsville, MD

AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2020

Project Category: Addressing community health

Description: This project created an online tool -- called My Block Counts -- which allows community members to collect and report information related to local environmental health. Before rolling out the tool, researchers held online workshops to teach the community about environmental justice, public infrastructure and community health. Then they invited community members to use My Block Counts to do an inventory of their neighborhoods. The virtual tool guides users through a series of questions about the built environment. Once users complete the questions, their responses are available for other users to access. Project organizers hope the data collected will help community members advocate for improved infrastructure in their neighborhoods. In the future, they plan to roll out the tool on a national level.