Growing Wellbeing through Community Gardens in Georgia
Keywords:
Community Gardens, Well-Being, Extension Education, Food Desert, Volunteer MotivationAbstract
Community gardens have been part of the American landscape for over 100 years. Recently, community gardens have been used to address food deserts and the obesity epidemic in the United States by increasing household access to fresh produce, physical activity, and social engagement. We report evaluation results from a community garden project located in a food desert in a Southeastern state. This particular county also had the highest rate of obesity in the state. Garden leaders described the impact of their gardening experiences on their well-being, access to fresh produce, and motivation to participate in the project. Well-being was enhanced through increased self-care and physical activity, reduced stress, a sense of contributing to others, and community cohesion. Garden leaders were motivated by opportunities to fulfill a request to participate, to teach others, to achieve self-fulfillment, to access fresh produce, and to try new recipes through Extension cooking classes. We recommend that local leaders adopt community gardens as a positive intervention to build cohesion and increase well-being among participants. Future research should focus on documenting the impact of community gardens on obesity and diabetes outcomes.
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