Facts about Community Gardening

Community Gardening Across the United States, Access to Nutrition, Food Distribution, and Local Foods

Community gardens across America are being studied to understand the impact that community gardens have on access to nutritional food, increased fruit and vegetable consumption, and neighborhood attachment. Each of these secondary sources - from the Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior, American Journal of Public Health, Annals of Anthropological Practice, and Journal of Hunger and Environmental Education - provides additional information on how community gardens can improve the lives of Americans across the United States. One of the most interesting aspects of community gardening is not the amount of food produced each harvest, but rather the emotional attachments individual's make to the living environment.

Can Eating Local Food Improve Dietary Quality?

A study conducted by academics at Virginia Tech University evaluated "the impact of a four-week diet based exclusively on locally produced foods." The study defined locally produced foods as any food grown or processed within 100 miles of the individual's hometown. The study utilized nineteen individuals (aged 21-71) living in southwestern Virginia and each participant was encouraged to maintain their current body weight and activity level throughout the four weeks. At the conclusion of the study, the results "indicated that participants increased their consumption of fruits and vegetables by more than one serving per day compared to their consumption at baseline." The results suggested that dietary intervention with locally sourced foods could lead to "improvements in dietary quality, particularly fruit and vegetable consumption." 

Nick Rose, Elena Serrano, Kathy Hosig, Carola Haas, Dixie Reaves, Shelly Nickols-Richardson, "Eating Local Food Improve Dietary Quality?" Journal of Nutrition Education and Behavior 39 (July/August 2007): 594.

The Influence of Social Involvement, Neighborhood Aesthetics, and Community Garden Participation on Fruit and Vegetable Consumption

In a study conducted in Denver, Colorado, researchers "considered the relationship between an urban adult population's fruit and vegetable consumption and several selected social and psychological processes, beneficial aesthetic experiences, and garden participation." From 2006-2007, researchers studied 58 population blocks representing 436 individuals. The study overwhelming showed that an individual's fruit and vegetable intake increased through involvement with a community garden. "Community gardeners consumed fruits and vegetables 5.7 times per day, compared with home gardeners (4.6 times per day) and nongardeners (3.9 times per day). Moreover, 56% of community gardeners met national recommendations to consume fruits and vegetables at least 5 times per day, compared with 37% of home gardeners and 25% of nongardeners." This study revealed that community gardens were not only beneficial for food consumption, but they also improved individual's relationship with the food growing process and relationship with their "environmental aesthetics" creating a stronger bond of neighborhood attachment. 

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In conclusion, "Our analysis showed that community gardeners reported higher intake of fruits and vegetables than did home gardeners and nongardeners. Moreover, this analysis shed light on the relationships between several key social and psychological processes and fruit and vegetable consumption. We found that social involvement was associated with fruit and vegetable consumption, after adjusting for educational attainment, physical activity level, and neighborhood aesthetics. Social involvement, which represents one dimension of social capital, has been shown previously to relate to vegetable consumption."

Jill Litt, Mah-J. Soobader, Mark S. Turbin, James W. Hale, Michael Buchenau, Julie Marshall, "The Influence of Social Involvement, Neighborhood Aesthetics, and Community Garden Participation on Fruit and Vegetable Consumption," American Journal of Public Health (August 2011): published online. 

Growing Vegetables and Values

This study conducted in Flint, Michigan in 2008, examines the involvement of youth programs and community gardens. Researchers utilized two community gardens with youth programs to examine the relationship between youth development, food nutrition, and access to healthy foods and aesthetically pleasing environments. Through participation observation, photographs and interviews, the researchers collected information from adult gardeners and neighbors, youth, and community police officers. The conclusion of this study found that "the garden programs provided opportunities for constructive activities, contributions to the community, relationship and interpersonal skill development, informal social control, exploring cognitive and behavioral competence, and improved nutrition. Community gardens promoted developmental assets for involved youth while improving their access to and consumption of healthy foods." 

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In regards to youth development, the study "found that youth involved in one community garden project developed gardening skills and knowledge, relationships with elder gardeners, academic skills, teamwork, responsibility, and appreciation for the value of gardens. There is also a growing body of research demonstrating that green spaces, such as community gardens, facilitate social interactions and the supervision and mentoring of children and youth." In cities that have experienced economic and environmental hardship, such as Flint, this study suggests that community gardens can be a place for development in all aspects of life, ranging from nutrition to promoted leadership skills, while simultaneously improving the urban landscape and natural environment of where individuals live. 

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Julie Allen, Katherine Alaimo, Doris Elam, Elizabeth Perry, "Growing Vegetables and Values: Benefits of Neighborhood-Based Community Gardens for Youth Development and Nutrition," Journal of Hunger and Environmental Nutrition (December 2008): 418 - 438.

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Intersecting Space, Race, and Place through Community Gardens

"In this article, we examine the structure and meaning of community gardens in Florida’s most cohesive and oldest African American community of Frenchtown in Tallahassee. Here, residents reclaim and transform empty spaces into places of engagement and empowerment, effectively resisting systemic racism. Using a mixed methods approach during a 5-week NSFfunded ethnographic field school with the Health Equity Alliance of Tallahassee, we counter the prevailing stigma of Frenchtown that perpetuates its continued marginalization. We argue that community gardens are expressions of social resistance. Through garden activities, residents transcend race, culture, income, and neighborhoods, while also promoting health, heritage, place-making, and economic opportunities. Place is constituted by spatial politics in a cultural milieu, evident in the community’s ability to intersect diverse institutional boundaries via gardens. This research contextualizes how a community-based participatory research project successfully resists violent environments through spatial transformation."

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 Emily Hite, Dorie Perez, Dalila D'Ingeo, Qasimah Boston, and Miaisha Mitchell, "Intersecting Race, Space, and Place through Community Gardens," Annals of Anthropological Practice 41 (2017): 55-66.