[Community_garden] Benefits of community gardens

[adam36055 at aol.com]

Some friendly suggestions and amendments: 
 
 The first place you need to start, Cynthia, when creating a list of this sort, for the eyes of elected officials, governmental managers, the press, corporate and foundation funders is how "our thing," namely community gardening, best serves the municipalities and communites in which they are sited. 
 
 It's the old negotiation mindset - you have to think, "what's in it for you," before you think, "what's in it for me."
 
 You know, perfectly well what you want, but you have to know where you can cast your nets, with your list of "benefits of community gardens," to catch the most fish. 
 
 The main reason why the ACGA and this listserv is valuable to our coummunity of gardeners is that it helps us to think "beyond our garden gates," to keep us from wasting valuable non-gardening and "people organizing," time on "recreating wheels." With all due respect, there are some extraodinarily good wheels available on the ACGA website that you can attach to your wagon. 
 
 1) Please start with David Malakoff's great article, "What Good is Community Greening? Research Supports All Those Common Sense Answers You've Been Using for Years - But There is Still More to Learn: 
 (http://www.communitygarden.org/whatgood.php). And then think of how you would best edit your list, and "pitch," thinking about "what's in it for you/what's in it for me?).
 
 2) Currently, Gateway Greening's "Whitmire Study," (http://www.gatewaygreening.org/WhitmireStudy.asp ) 
 is the first, and best study we have of community garden "quantifiables." ACGA Board member, and St. Louis Gateway Greening Director, Ms. Gwenne Hayes-Stewart has been the guiding force behind the creation of this invaluable and rigorous study of the effects of community gardens on their surrounding communities and it would be extremely useful for you, Cynthia, to reach out to Ms. Hayes-Stewart after you have read whatever you can find on-line about the study. 
 
 Then you should re-edit your list, again....
 
 
 My thoughts: 
 
 While, I believe that while the food harvested in our urban community gardens is both useful and helpful in augmenting the diets of some urgan gardeners, their families and a few local food pantires, it is not of significant quantity at present to have made a substantial enough contribution in our national fight against hunger to be "lead-off" on your list. 
 
 In future years, especially when transportation of fresh foods with fossil fueled tractor trailers becomes prohibitive for agricultural corporations, urban agriculure, and our gardens will become a more important "lead off." 
 
 Now, I think, that: 
 1) stabilizing communities through community gardening, 
 
 2)the promotion of block safety through community gardening, 
 
 3) the recruitment of urban greening and park volunteers and leaders through community gardening
 
 4) community education in healthy eating, diet, education, and the life sciences (i.e., food grows and you can grow it in this garden), and 
 
 5) the creation and nuturing of healthy, self-sustaining, urban greening communities through community gardening, with minimal a minimal outlay of public and private funding
 
 are better "lead offs". 
 
 
 And, with the use of the quantifiables listed in the studies above, would be more use in explaining to elected officials, governmental managers, the media, corprorate and foundation funders, how "our thing," namely community gardening, best serves the municipalities and communities in which they are sited. 
 
 And using the "what's in it for you/what's in it for me," strategy getting the seed money, water, and zoning our gardens need to serve our communities. 
 
 Best wishes, 
 Adam Honigman
 Hell's Kitchen, NYC
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 -----Original Message-----
 From: skyprice at gmail.com
 To: community_garden at list.communitygarden.org
 Sent: Thu, 1 Mar 2007 6:06 PM
 Subject: [Community_garden] Benefits of community gardens
 
  On behalf of the Urban Ag Committee of the Community Food Security
Coalition (which many ACGA folks like Betsy Johnson, James Kuhns and
Rodger Cooley serve on), I would like to ask people to please comment
on this list of CG benefits. Greater GR Food Systems Council developed
it over the years for a variety of purposes, but obviously there are
things that could be added.  I'm also wondering if people think there
are items that are wrong or should be stated differently.

Please feel free to reply just to me if you'd like. Also, sorry for
duplicate postings.

Thanks for looking at this!

Cynthia Price
Chair, Greater Grand Rapids Food Systems Council

Benefits of community gardening:
--fresh fruits and vegetables taste better, making healthy eating easier;
--there is more nutritional value in food that has not come a long
distance causing nutrient deterioration;
--the short distance of consumer to food eliminates long-distance
shipping, with its negative consequences such as global warming gas
emissions and continual replacement of road (and other)
infrastructure;
--generally uses little or no pesticides and builds the soil organically;
--provides the carbon dioxide fixation effects of plant growth;
--diminishes the "heat island" effect in urban areas;
--may capture and reuse stormwater runoff;
--is generally more intensive in yield per acre and therefore
"consumes" less land;
--gives people more control over what goes into their food;
--provides an opportunity for exercise and fresh air;
--brings people together and builds relationships;
--improves mental health thru a variety of factors, including social
contact and the sense of accomplishment in growing good food;
--provides youth a constructive outlet for their energies;
--provides opportunity for small-scale entrepreneurial activity;
--promotes local economies, including the non-monetized economy;
--creates beauty and tranquility;
--may reclaim abandoned spaces;
--connects people with nature and the seasons;
--connects people with their communities;
--is a great education tool for both youth and adults on how nature works;
--teaches people how to provide for themselves, increasing homeland
security (as well as being less vulnerable to disruption than other
aspects of the current food system);
--helps create a community presence which may deter crime;
--reduces cost of obtaining food;
--often reduces hunger due to location in low-income communities;
--promotes less dependence on the global/corporate food system with
all of its environmental and social harms.

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