What is a Community Garden?

Community gardens are plots of land where people can grow fruit, vegetables, and other plants for themselves and their neighbors. Community gardens have lots of social and health benefits and are becoming very popular. No matter where you live or where you come from, a community garden is bound to improve your community in some way. 

What are some ways a community gardens help a community?

The first thing that community gardens do is to provide low cost, healthy food to the community.  Many community gardens provide a large variety of fresh produce to the residents of the community as well as to local food pantries.  Community gardens also bring people together from a wide variety of backgrounds (age, culture, race, etc.) and encourage them to be social by sharing gardening techniques and recipes that use the food grown by their neighbors.  Community gardening is also now recognized by many state police departments as an effective way to prevent crime in communities across the nation. 

What can you learn from participating in a community garden?

Learning to grow food can be an important experience for everyone.  Next to water, food is the most basic item that every human being needs.  Understanding where our food comes from (before it gets to the store!) and the importance of caring for the land that grows it, is something that everyone should learn about.  Especially since so many human activities take place indoors, causing many kids to grow up being unfamiliar with how to enjoy the outdoors. Community gardening provides an inexpensive and fun way to bring people closer to nature and allows them to experience the outdoors with others, in a meaningful way.