Environmental, Cultural And Social Benefits Of Community Garden

I care deeply about the planet Earth, the home humans originate from, so it pains me to watch “modern” society devastate natural life across the board. I feel personally connected to the issue of how we use our land. Having lived in the Lee County area since birth, I have noticed just in our own little part of the world how much “development” can change things. There used to be so much more plant life: trees, grasses, flowers and a myriad of other greenery. What was once considered “empty” lots, by some, have been adapted to suit human desires be it additional roads, restaurants, shopping malls, and a continuing spread of “chain” corporate industries. Beyond human structures, huge amounts of land also are cultivated for industrial farming

The best lasting answer to food deserts may be to turn them green. We should promote a compacted walk able community that holds up local business and grocers in the low-income area. Having ready admission to inexpensive healthy food shouldn’t be an extravagance of the superior classes, it should be an essential structural mass of all city

Texas Women’s Empowerment Foundation is creating an urban garden that would use the joy of gardening to provide intergenerational and cross-cultural connections within a food desert with access to fresh fruits and vegetables and weekly physical activities using the joy of gardening. The program will promote positive behavioral changes that include better nutrition and increase physical activity among participants while teach entrepreneurship skills to the youth through the farmers’ market. In addition, the garden and market would be used to teach youth and low-income families gardening and entrepreneurial skills while also providing the low-income community to be served with regular access to fresh fruit and vegetables. TWEF will also provide

The implementation of school gardens would not only foster several learning opportunities such as the teaching of biology, nutrition, economics of production, and sustainability, but it would allow schools to adopt a cost-effective method of providing nutritious, satiating lunches. The National School Lunch Program provides reimbursements to schools to ensure the continuous supply of lunches, but to make a complete meal with an average of $2.93 along with the expenses of labor, equipment, electricity, and maintenance is not unsustainable. Despite the low cost of maintenance and the fact that nothing is ever free, school gardens can produce an abundance of low-cost fruits and vegetables that can serve as the basis of every school breakfast and lunch, considerably reducing the costs of lunches and encouraging the betterment the overall nutrition and physical health of students. In addition, school compost systems could also be cost-beneficial as they cut spending on waste management fees; for instance, in a New York pilot program, one school saved over $6000 annually in fees. These savings could be reinvested in the school lunch program or into the advocating of health. Also, because up to eighty percent of typical school garbage is compostable material, the compost can be used to fertilize and maintain the school gardens, furthering the reduction of costs. The stated policies would not only lessen the gap between poverty and improved health, but would foster a new and innovative way to promote financial and physical health in

Can you imagine not being able to access good quality, fresh food? That’s the struggle that the residents of Homewood, Pennsylvania, face every day. Homewood is a food desert, which is defined by google as “an urban area in which it is difficult to buy affordable or good-quality fresh food.” For our last project in my Urban Research and Design class this year, my teacher challenged us to turn our newfound knowledge into action, and attempt to apply what we’d learned to a real community problem.

With the many financial challenges and intimidating odds, Will Allen, author of The Good Food Revolution, built the country's most renowned urban farm that was once a big gamble to becoming an education center for every level that currently produces enough produce and fish to feed thousands in cities year-round. His mission at his company, Growing Power, is employing young people from cities housing projects to prove that a local food system can help troubled youths. Not only are local farms a place for troubled youths to learn responsibility but to also dismantle racism, create more jobs, improve health, and bring urban and rural areas closer together. Today, Allen is country wide with Growing Power creating community food systems. The title of the book, The Good Food Revolution, puts forward that growing healthy food will lead to healthier

At Sprouting Hope community garden is located in Hungry Mother State Park Marion, Virginia. During the Emory and Henry’s “Service Plunge” Dr. Davis’ transitions I class spent their time volunteering to weed the garden. The garden is ran by Jason Von Kundra, an enthusiastic leader for this non-profit organization. The garden allows low income families from the surrounding areas to have healthier eating options. The opportunity to learn the importance of nature and the process of growing ones food. Sprouting Hope is an organization that exemplifies the traditions we as a country has lost. The importance of healthy food has diminished over time due to factors such as work, convenience and the overall fast pace of the twenty first century.

Since the farming community has diminished significantly, it is paramount for the participants to learn these lessons. The garden project provides classes on eating healthy, teamwork and proper agricultural skills. The United States is flooded with fast, over processed food. Having this food so readily available has caused people to forget about putting the time and effort into gardening. It is essential that the future adults of the United States learn the importance of being healthy. Although Sprouting Hope may be a small organization, it has managed to expand its garden twice and now has dozens of produce

Imagine that you and your family didn’t have enough food for every member of your household. It may be challenging to think about, but many people in our great town of Floyd may be unable to afford snacks or even meals for their family. We as caring citizens should take every step we can to prevent that. Doing activities such as having more food drives, asking stores and restaurants to donate, and starting a community garden, are some of the ways we can help. It may not be easy, but it is very important.

596 Acres is a Beautiful Solution that addresses the issue of urban land use. The purpose of this initiative aims to transform fenced in vacant lots into gardens, farms, and play spaces. It uses community funds and funding from local organizations to reach out to the owners of vacant lots through emails, phone calls, letters, and notes left on the property. Since the NYC Land Community Access Program in May 2011, this initiative has created and supported other sites such as Myrtle Village Green and The Siempre Verde Community Garden on the Lower East Side. The first two vacant lots discovered were publicly owned but never developed into something for community use. The 596 team took it upon themselves to gather data on possible lots in the NYC that could be renewed and put to better use.

There were neighborhoods throughout Philadelphia where residents couldn’t easily buy healthy foods like fruits and vegetables. And science shows us that people who live in these underserved neighborhoods are more at risk for serious diet-related diseases like obesity(Food Trust website). They began with one farmers market at Tasker Homes, a public housing development in South Philadelphia. Once a week, with the help of the Tasker Homes Tenant Council, they set up one long table overflowing with produce. It happened to be the only source of fresh fruits and vegetables in the community. The Food Trust works with neighborhoods, schools, grocers, farmers and policymakers in Philadelphia and across the country to change how we all think about healthy food and to increase its availability. The Food Trust efforts with its partners resulted in the creation of the Fresh Food Financing Initiative. It was the nations first statewide financing program to increase supermarket development in underserved areas. The Food Trust is a nonprofit organization that continues to ensure that all children who live in communities have access to safe, healthy and affordable food. Their key goal of this project is to stimulate the development of supermarkets in lower-income neighborhoods.

Another discussion post with one-sided sources. At least the prompt addresses the issue having to feed a growing population. Green Revolution farming practices such as irrigation allow us to produce more food with less land. Having to convert natural areas to farmland has its own issues affecting wildlife and biodiversity, and Green Revolution farming protects more natural areas while providing needed sustenance to people. We shouldn’t be vilifying farmers without looking at all the facts.

Imagine a city that has just over 1 million people living in it; by today’s standards that is a small city. Imagine New York City in the mid-1800s having this population size. This was one of the biggest cities on the east coast of the United States of America. It was growing in both size and value; but as the city grew the natural environment shrink. And in today’s New York City with its 8.5 million citizens the only green that is left in the city are manmade parks ("Immigrant and Foreign Population"). Olmstead, who created all 842 acres of central park, had amazing foresight into what the city would become. He preserved by recreating the environment that millions of people take for granted today. These hundreds and hundreds of green acres

“Food deserts”, communities which have more limited access to healthy food, are believed to contribute to poor diets and health issues in disadvantaged populations, mostly lower income groups (Neckerman , Yousefzadeh, Bader, & Purciel , 2009). Accordingly, this research topic is important for community planning, especially for the rejuvenation projects because it could help improve the development of food markets and reach to more nutritious, to provide more affordable foods outlets to different communities. It is a common issue that people who live in the lower income community trend to not have enough fresh and affordable food access where “food desert” is most likely to appear.

Urban agriculture can improve the access to healthy food for individuals in the community. There is real potential for urban agriculture to “empower certain motivated communities to end their