AARP Eye Center
)
AARP Livable Communities Map
West End Community Center (2023) Print
2023 AARP Community Challenge Grantee
Project Category
Public places
└ Community Gardens
└ Community Gardens
This project will distribute 200 straw bales an alternative to contaminated urban soil so that community members can plant and grow their own vegetables.
Photo Gallery
Image:
Click on a photo to learn more
See More Projects Like This One
Lexington, KY
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2019
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: Organizers with Seedleaf hoped to provide a more comfortable experience for the many older adults who maintain one of its free community gardens. To do this, Seedleaf provided ergonomic garden tools -- including shovels and trowels -- designed for people with arthritis to use. They also purchased portable, raised seats that gardeners can place alongside garden beds, as well as a foldable wagon to collect harvested vegetables and a shed to house the new tools. To provide a space for visitors to rest and socialize, the nonprofit worked with a local carpenter to build two sturdy, cedar benches.
Elk City, OK
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2019
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: Elk City added nine new table gardens -- designed to accommodate gardeners who use wheelchairs or can't bend easily -- to make its community garden more accessible and appealing to all ages. To accommodate the table gardens, the City laid down gravel. They also added three benches installed on concrete pads. The improvements spurred the City to take on the expense of the garden's water, sewer and electric usage. Since the improvements, the City is exploring the possibility of adding shade structures to shield the benches from the sun, as well as hanging baskets of flowers or vegetables.
Spokane, WA
AARP Community Challenge Grant Year: 2023
Project Category: Community Gardens
Description: This project will add 12 raised beds to an existing community garden and donate surplus produce to a local senior center and a church.
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.
LEARN MORE AND STAY INFORMED
Find articles and resources about making communities more livable for people of all ages
Download or order free publications from AARP Livable Communities
Sign up for the free, weekly, award-winning AARP Livable Communities eNewsletter
Don't see your community listed?
LEARN HOW IT CAN JOIN THE NETWORKConnect with your AARP State Office
AARP has offices in all 50 states as well as in the District of Columbia, Puerto Rico and the U.S. Virgin Islands.
AARP Rhode Island State Office
10 Orms Street
Suite 200
Providence, RI 02904
United States