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Purpose of Community Gardens |
Community Benefits - Help reduce crime
- Sometimes reclaim abandoned spaces
- Help create a community presence which may deter crime
- Create beauty and tranquility
Economic Benefits - Reduce cost of obtaining food
- Often reduces hunger due to location in low-income communities
- Teach people how to provide for themselves
- Promote local economies, including the non-monetized economy
- Provide opportunity for small-scale entrepreneurial activity
Educational Benefits - Are a great education tool for both youth and adults about how nature works
- Connect us with nature
- Provide youth a constructive outlet for their energies
Environmental Benefits - Promote less dependence on the global/corporate food system with all of its environmental harms
- May reclaim abandoned spaces
- Are generally more intensive in yield per acre and therefore "consumes" less land
- May capture and reuse stormwater runoff
- Diminish the "heat island" effect in urban areas
- Provide the carbon dioxide fixation effects of plant growth
- Generally use little or no pesticides and builds the soil organically
- Shorten the distance of consumer to food, eliminating long-distance shipping, with its negative consequences such as global warming gas emissions and continual replacement of road (and other) infrastructure
Health Benefits - Provide fresh fruits and vegetables (which may be organic as well)
- Fresh fruits and vegetables taste better, making healthy eating easier
- Provide exercise
- Provide an opportunity for those who love gardening
- Connect people with nature and the seasons
- Provide stress relief through contact with tranquil green spaces and the activity of gardening Improve mental health thru a variety of factors, including social contact and the sense of accomplishment in growing good food
- Provide an opportunity for exercise and fresh air
- Give people more control over what goes into their food
- Have more nutritional value in food that has not come a long distance causing nutrient deterioration
Social Benefits - Get people more out in and involved with the community
- Bring people together and build relationships
- Provide a means for cultural expression and exchange
- Connect people with their communities
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