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Massachusetts researchers identifying plastic straws that break down faster in nature

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Straw No More | Molly Steer | TEDxJCUCairns

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Eco- Friendly Stainless Steel Straws - No more Plastic Straws!

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Here's how little plastic straws are wrecking our oceans

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People are taking a stand against plastic straws. On July 1, they were banned in Seattle, Washington. Then Starbucks announced plans to phase out plastic straws by 2020. More plastic-straw bans have followed.

Plastic is harmful to the environment. Some say banning plastic straws is an important step toward saving our planet. Others think plastic-straw bans are unnecessary and inconvenient. Here, two TFK Kid Reporters weigh in.

Yes!
by TFK Kid Reporter Josh Lee, 12 Chicago, Illinois
Plastic straws may help you drink without spilling, but the long-term costs are too high. Americans use 500 million drinking straws each day. When they are thrown away, they pollute our landfills and oceans. Marine animals sometimes mistake the plastic for food. There's a viral video on YouTube that shows a turtle with a straw stuck up its nose! It's okay for people to be attached to using straws, but there are good alternatives to plastic ones. People can buy paper or steel straws to carry with them. And many cities across the U.S. have restricted the use of plastic straws unless a person requests one. Passing more laws to ban plastic straws will not solve the problem, but it is a good first step.

No!
by TFK Kid Reporter Maria Suarez, 10 Bellaire, Texas
Plastic straws should not be banned until we can find alternatives that are affordable, environmentally friendly, and acceptable for disabled people. Why? Many people with disabilities rely on flexible straws to drink safely and independently. Without plastic straws, people might use paper straws. But producing paper products uses a lot of energy. Plus, it creates air and water pollution. And paper can be used only once. Plastic can be reused and recycled. My dad and I wash and reuse nontoxic plastic straws. Finally, it is wrong to think that banning plastic straws will save the oceans. Instead, we should teach people to properly dispose of trash so it doesn't end up on beaches or in waterways.

The Next Debate! We want to hear from you! Do we still need daylight saving time? Email your opinion to tfkasks4you@timeforkids.com. Your response might be featured in an upcoming issue.

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People are taking a stand against plastic straws. On July 1, they were banned in Seattle, Washington. Then Starbucks announced plans to phase out plastic straws by 2020. More plastic-straw bans have followed. Plastic is harmful to the environment. Some say banning plastic straws is an important step toward saving our planet.

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Just say NO: Plastic Straws Suck! – The Watershed Project

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The Last Plastic Straw encourages individuals to refuse plastic straws, and advocate for legislation to stop plastic pollution.

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National Skip the Straw Day - How to Reduce Straw Use and Plastic Pollution

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Americans use 500 million straws daily. Citizen activists want to shrink that number.

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Community gardens decorate New York City's urban landscape

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LACGC: 20 Years of Cultivating Community Gardens

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Couple turns abandoned lot into community garden

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Turning lawns into 'micro farms' to fight food insecurity in South LA

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Why make your school garden a community garden? Such partnerships enrich academic learning, nurture relationships, and create a positive neighborhood environment that enhances students' lives outside of school.

WHAT IS A COMMUNITY GARDEN?

A community garden is a garden that is planned, planted, maintained and sustained by individuals within a community. The "community" may be defined by physical location, such as a neighborhood or a city, or as individuals linked by a common organization or cause, such as a church or food bank.Community gardens come in all shapes and sizes. They can be as small as a raised bed in front of a town hall or library or as large as a couple of acres outside of town. They may be located on empty lots, on land owned by nonprofits or government agencies, or acreage owned collectively by the gardeners. In some community gardens, each gardener has his/her own plot to maintain; in others, gardeners work cooperatively on group plots and then share in the harvest; some offer both options.

THE BENEFITS

Individuals come together to work towards a common goal and create a focus on an activity with positive outcomes. These include:

Beautification - This makes the community a more pleasant and relaxing place to live in and improves the value of surrounding real estate.

Reduced crime - Research shows that the presence of community gardens result in decreased vandalism, littering, and crime.

Food security- Community gardens can increase the availability of fresh fruits and vegetables -- especially important in areas with limited access to grocery stores and farmers' markets.

Environmental improvements- In urban areas, gardens add to community green space, which can reduce stormwater runoff and provides habitat for pollinators and other wildlife.

Economic benefits- Community gardeners can supplement their incomes by selling produce from their plots.

Improved health- Gardening has been shown to contribute to participants' mental and physical health.

COMMUNITY GARDENS ON SCHOOL GROUNDS

Schools are often physical and logistical centers in communities. The difference between a school garden and a school-based community garden is that community members are more than just school volunteers: They're actively engaged in the organization, planning, decision making, and day-to-day maintenance of the garden. Beyond the benefits listed above for school-based community gardens, you'll also have:

A broader support network- More people mean more networking connections especially important when you're seeking funding and donations of supplies.

Many hands- There will be more people to maintain the garden -- a big help when school is out of session.

Intergenerational connections- Through positive interactions, adults and kids develop mutual respect.

Security- More eyes on the garden, especially when school is closed, decreases the likelihood of theft and vandalism.

Parental involvement- The community garden is a place to spend family time. It also gives parents who aren't comfortable or available for volunteering in the classroom or coaching sports another option for getting involved in their children's education.

GETTING STARTED

1. Get administration permission- There can be a number of challenges to starting a community garden on school grounds. Are individuals allowed to be on grounds after hours? Are gardens accessible? Is there water available? Is safety a concern? Your first step should be to find out your school district's policies on use of school grounds and have your idea approved by administrators.

2. Engage your community- Schedule brainstorming sessions, offering multiple times and dates to attract individuals with different schedules. Advertise meetings at local restaurants, businesses, and in newspapers. Send notes home with students and e-mail appropriate contacts. Ask local organizations to include an announcement in their newsletters. Get the word out as widely as possible. These initial meetings can help you gauge community interest. Does your community want a garden? Is there enough interest to begin a garden and keep it going? How should it be organized? What would you want to plant?

3. Organize your group- Dream big as a group, but also elect a smaller committee to be responsible for guiding the project. Members must be willing to take on specific responsibilities and share the load because planning a community garden is too much for one person. It's a good idea to have at least 10 families initially who are committed to your project for successful implementation and to ensure sustainability. This planning committee can later transition into a body responsible for overseeing the garden and keeping it running.

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Starting a Community Garden on School Grounds

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Community gardens can enrich academic learning, nurture relationships, and create a positive neighborhood environment that enhances students' lives outside of school.

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Greetings from the garden! I'm Sig, one of Let's Grow Stuff's green-ish thumb enthusiasts here at PBS Wisconsin. You might remember me from last year when I forged, unpracticed, into small space balcony gardening and shared what I learned - from planning, to planting to harvesting - on the Let's Grow Stuff blog.

I'm back, baby (spinach), and this season I'm turning 180 degrees from the monkish solitude of me and my veggies to the engaged world of community gardening! I'm curious about the ways gardening brings people together - how a garden transforms from a private act of cultivation to a public, social or collective practice of place-making, stewardship and community care.

Throughout the growing season I'll be visiting our friendly and talented Let's Grow Stuff producers in their very own community garden plot located in Madison's Eagle Heights Community Gardens. I'm excited to learn about the stuff they're growing, their on-the-ground experience tending a plot at Eagle Heights, and meeting some of their gardening neighbors!

To prepare, however, I did a little homework. Having visited only a few community gardens in the past, I wanted a better understanding of their history in the United States, and I thought you might, too!

So, what is a community garden?

The United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) National Agricultural Library provides a basic definition:

Community gardens are collaborative projects on shared open spaces where participants share in the maintenance and products of the garden, including healthful and affordable fresh fruits and vegetables.

They're found in urban, suburban and rural communities. They grow an array of crops, flowers and herbs, serve as insect and wildlife habitats, promote the growth of native plants, and engage in soil improvement by teaching about crop rotation and cover cropping.

While diverse in expression, community gardens share a social mission. At a minimum, this means people grow in community, either on neighboring individual plots on a piece of land, or by collectively growing and managing one larger plot together.

More ambitiously, many community gardens have social goals, like ensuring that people facing economic hardship have access to produce, teaching children about growing and gardening, nurturing intergenerational relationships, combating social isolation, preserving ethnic and cultural food or farming traditions, or countering urban abandonment and its persistence of food deserts.

Community gardens are located in neighborhoods, at schools, public libraries, hospitals, universities and many other sites. Sometimes, the garden land is owned or leased by a public municipality or state, sometimes by a group of private individuals, other times by a community group or non-profit association.

Earliest community gardens

Researchers place one of the first examples of community gardening in the late 19th century, but for generations before this, across the Indigenous lands America occupies, members of our First Nations cultivated food, flowers and herbs in diverse communal forms. Today, as movements for Indigenous rights proliferate and gain visibility, we're learning more about these ongoing practices.

Amid America's 1893-1897 economic depression, Detroit's mayor, Hazen Pingree, devised a program to combat ballooning unemployment called Pingree's Potato Patches. The city of Detroit temporarily donated 430 acres of land - mainly vacant lots - to over 900 families who were given a quarter to half an acre each, along with seeds to farm. Once their garden fed the family, they sold any surplus yield at market. Pingree's patches were a financial success and a national model for garden-based poverty relief programs. They became a prototype for community gardening we see later in U.S. history as a top-down temporary emergency measure in response to a national economic crisis.

The School Garden Movement

1891 marked the founding of the first U.S. school garden in Boston, and the start of the national School Garden Movement of the Progressive Era that would thrive until the end of World War I. " Nature study, " a new educational pedagogy prioritizing experiential learning took hold, and school gardens were celebrated as a means to cultivate the economic and civic "character" of children. They attracted diverse financial support from local school boards, civic improvement societies, garden clubs and women's associations.

The School Garden Movement reached its height when America entered World War I. Included in the war effort, the Bureau of Education promoted the U.S. School Garden Army, a program enlisting 1.5 million children to cultivate 20,000 acres of vacant land.

World War Victory gardens and Interwar relief gardens

During both World Wars, the United States government promoted domestic gardening, or " Victory Gardening," as a patriotic duty essential to the civilian war effort. In WWI, the U.S. was called to address widespread food scarcity in Europe, and promoted local civilian food production to preserve U.S. farming output for soldiers and civilians abroad.

In the Interwar period during the Great Depression, models of anti-poverty gardening re-emerged in three ways. First, local governments offered work-relief gardens to public welfare applicants - similar to Pingree's Potato Patches. Second, subsistence backyard and community gardens proliferated as a means to combat economic food insecurity. Finally, industrial gardens arose in which corporations like International Harvester provided garden sites to workers to offset reduced hours and short-term layoffs.

With the advent of World War II, the promotion of civilian gardening - including community gardening - was holistic: as a boost to local food supply during a time of rationing, to promote exercise and a healthier diet, and as a distraction from worry about loved ones abroad.

1970s to the present: community building with community gardens

Community gardens, from the late 20th century through today, proliferate in response to a range of prolonged, intermittent, and/or enduring challenges that began in the 1970s with that decade's staggering inflation, urban abandonment, and the dawn of the environmental movement.

Local organizers, ordinary citizens, nonprofits and public institutions continue to launch and maintain community gardening programs as a way to create green space out of vacant lots, bring fresh produce to areas with no access to healthy food, stabilize neighborhoods, strengthen local food systems and mitigate - and adapt to - the climate crisis.

Wisconsin has growing (garden pun!) numbers and a wide diversity of community gardens, as does the greater Midwest. Which brings us back to the Let's Grow Stuff community garden plot at Eagle Heights! Continue to follow along with me as I chat with our producer-gardeners, meet a few of the new and veteran growers who are their neighbors, and get a better sense of how all of them think about what "community" means to gardening!

In the meantime, take a look at some snapshots of what's been happening in the Let's Grow Stuff plot so far and we'll see you soon!

Qwantese Winters Let's Grow Stuff Ben Futa Sigrid Peterson

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Let's Grow Stuff ... in a community garden! - PBS Wisconsin

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Greetings from the garden! I'm Sig, one of Let's Grow Stuff's green-ish thumb enthusiasts here at PBS Wisconsin. You might...

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Summary

Community gardens are a great way to increase food security, improve public health, and even reduce crime rates. With a variety of setups, locations, and goals, they can play an important role in making healthy, ethical, and sustainable food available to ever more people.

Here's a quote I love from permaculture founder Bill Mollison: "All the world's problems can be solved in a garden."

Hyperbolic? Maybe a little. But consider the problems you'll find in parts of many cities: unlivable wages; lack of access to healthy food, and the poor health outcomes that come from that; water and air pollution; and struggling families, communities, and economies. I'd argue - and there's plenty of research to back it up - that community gardens can help address all of these.

And it's not just in urban areas. Community gardens can work wonders in suburbs and rural areas as well.

In this article, we'll look at what community gardens can accomplish, and offer some ways for you to get involved in this growing (pun intended!) movement.

Why Gardening?

Throughout history, humanity has instinctively turned to gardening when faced with insecurity and turmoil. So it's not surprising that with the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic in 2020, Americans turned to gardening in record numbers, leading many seed suppliers to run out of seeds.

Food shortages experienced during the early days of the pandemic prompted many people to pursue more self-determination over their food supply. Others became more concerned about food safety, or wanted to have more control over exposure to GMOs, agricultural chemicals, and unnecessary additives in their diet. Many simply wanted a new way to provide healthier food for their families.

Growing your own food also has additional environmental benefits, allowing you to eat locally and reduce your carbon footprint. In a tumultuous, ever-changing world, many of us have rediscovered the peaceful refuge, security, and purposeful activity a garden can provide.

Healthy Food Access for All

Let's start with the most basic feature of a garden: it provides food. And fresh, nutritious food at that. This factor alone means that gardens can not just help alleviate hunger, but improve health in marginalized communities. Poverty status is a risk factor for poor health. And some low-income areas in the US have an average life expectancy that's many years less than that of the national average, or even the higher-income communities nearby.

And living in a low-income community also often means there's a greater need for and dependence on public transit, which leads to longer travel times to get healthy food. A four-mile commute to a grocery store can turn into a multi-hour endeavor on a local bus or subway, making corner stores like 7-Eleven a time and money-saver, despite their lack of healthy options.

All of this is compounded by additional food access issues that make healthy eating more difficult for lower-income individuals and families. For example, in the US, many unhealthy foods are made with subsidized ingredients. Government subsidies of "commodity" crops like corn, soy, and wheat bring down the price of things like white bread, high fructose corn syrup, and factory farmed meat while also creating a marketplace distortion that makes fruits, vegetables, whole grains, and nuts and seeds comparatively more expensive.

But community gardens can help here, too, by bringing healthy food into the very communities that need it the most, reducing reliance on convenience stores and fast food. And as we'll see, the benefits don't end there.

What Is a Community Garden?

But before we dive into all of the things that make community gardens great, perhaps it would benefit us to define what exactly a community garden is.

The term "community garden" refers to land or a garden tended to by a group of people. It may be divided into individual or shared plots. Community gardens can either exist on private or public land, within a community, neighborhood, or on the grounds of an institution such as a church, school, city hall, or hospital.

Primarily used for growing edible plants for the surrounding community to enjoy, community gardens also engage members in the process of growing and harvesting crops. Produce in community gardens is generally grown for personal consumption, or even for sharing, but donation and/or sale of crops are also possible.

Churches, non-profit organizations, individual community members, neighborhood associations, clubs, cities or counties, or other community-level agencies often establish community gardens.

And while community gardens are often associated with urban gardening and the transformation of vacant and abandoned pieces of land, this isn't always the case. For instance, rural and suburban community gardens exist, as well. And unique floating gardens and rooftop gardens are also creative takes on community gardens.

Currently, there are over 2,100 community gardens throughout the United States and Canada registered with the American Community Gardens Association. And that number is likely to continue climbing as their popularity increases.

How Did Community Gardens Start?

Although community gardens may seem like a relatively recent trend, the idea of shared garden plots has been around for centuries. Allotment gardens in the UK and Europe set aside land plots to prevent starvation among those who did not actually own land. Use of the land wasn't exactly free, however. Gardeners paid landowners or local authorities to rent the plots. And access was often based on adherence to strict rules. For example, anyone who dug potatoes on Sundays in lieu of church attendance would forfeit access to the land.

In the United States, community gardens came about during wartime, as the US government encouraged Americans to plant " victory gardens." During both World Wars, the domestic supply of fresh fruits and vegetables expanded greatly thanks to community gardens. These kinds of gardens also popped up during other economic downturns and nationwide crises. During the Great Depression, for example, community gardens and farms helped unemployed workers and their families put food on the table.

But modern community gardening doesn't necessarily follow in the footsteps of its origins. Now, there are a greater variety of reasons for starting a garden. There are societal concerns like the environmental impact of the commercial food system and urban degradation, in addition to using community gardens to beautify and improve the local environment. Community gardens also serve to bring additional resilience, food, and a source of connection to their neighborhoods.

Types of Community Gardens

Community gardens come in many different shapes, sizes, and locations. Below are some of the most common types of community gardens you might find.

Neighborhood or Residential Gardens

Neighborhood or residential gardens are just like they sound - located in a housing community or apartment complex. Edible landscaping on your own private property can also fall under this category. You can share food grown in your private garden with neighbors, or use it as a display plot to encourage others to abandon their lawns and start their own gardens.

Residential gardens may also consist of a shared space within your neighborhood, where members of the community can volunteer or help with upkeep. In these settings, members may take the produce they grow, or they may donate or sell it within the community.

Oftentimes, repurposed vacant lots get a makeover into urban gardens, which has been the case at hundreds of locations in Detroit. In fact, many people now regard Detroit as the community garden capital of the United States. In the year 2000, there were an estimated 80 farms within Detroit's city limits. And by 2017, there were more than 1,500, with the city's urban farmers producing an estimated 400,000 pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables for city residents each year.

Allotment Gardens

Allotment gardens come from a single piece of land divided into separate plots and leased out to people for use. These are more common in places like Europe and the United Kingdom, and have a longer history, dating back to the 1700s. As mentioned before, these types of community gardens are often owned by the local government or self-managed and owned by the allotment holders through an association. Allotment gardens allow local families to grow their own food, which can be especially helpful if they don't have any green space of their own.

School Gardens

Studies show that when kids grow vegetables, they eat more vegetables. And if they can do so in a learning environment, all the better.

School gardens are typically raised-bed gardens created for the benefit of a school. Students can take part in the process of setting up the garden as well as the harvesting of what's grown there. They also get to learn about nutrition and plant identification in the process. In some cases, produce grown in school gardens may become part of school meals, snacks, or other creative uses in a classroom setting to give kids further hands-on experience with the end result of growing their own healthy, whole foods.

Demonstration Gardens

Demonstration (or demo) gardens highlight a variety of plant types, sustainable practices, and how to grow edible plants. In this setting, participants get to test out different plant varieties as well as techniques for growing them. Demo gardens are often the result of a city or university project, or a gardening extension program. And they may have a theme, such as a garden for native plants, herbs or medicinals, or gardens designed for children.

Institutional Gardens

Institutional gardens are edible gardens located and maintained either on private or government-owned property. City parks gardens, church gardens, prison gardens, or hospital gardens are all examples of institutional gardens. The institutions where these types of community gardens are located have the chance to connect directly with the communities they serve. Plus, it directly benefits the inmates, residents, patients, or congregations already involved.

Churches find that community gardens can deepen connections between faith, nature, and food. Prisons find them helpful with reform and rehabilitation programs. And hospitals find that they help patients make the connection between food and medicine.

One example of the power of an institutional garden to uplift a community is the Baptist Health system in South Florida. This chain of hospitals established a Grow 2 Heal garden at four of their hospitals located in low-income communities. The first one was planted at Homestead Hospital in south Miami-Dade County. In this area, 30% of the population is dependent on food stamps despite, paradoxically, being located in the middle of an agricultural zone. But now, the 10-acre hospital garden feeds not only local residents, but provides ingredients to the hospital's kitchen, lowering the price of creating healthy meals for patients and hospital staff.

How Community Gardens Build Equity

Community gardens can bring a variety of social, cultural, environmental, nutritional, and financial benefits to those involved.

Bring People Together

Community gardens encourage community investment in a common goal, thus bringing people together who might not otherwise interact so closely. One of the natural outcomes of this is getting to know your neighbors, learning to look out for each other, and enjoying the added benefits of building new friendships and partnerships within your community. Community garden involvement can also help create an "all are welcome" atmosphere, where people of all ages, genders, backgrounds, and walks of life can come together and work side-by-side with diverse peers.

Plus, cleaning up vacant land and creating community gardens may even help reduce crime in the area. Research has shown that the simple acts of cutting overgrown grass and picking up trash in low-income neighborhoods can curb gun violence within metropolitan areas by up to 30%.

Improve Food Security

Community gardens also help address some of the problems with food deserts, areas where it's hard or close to impossible to find healthy food. Many low-income communities are prone to food deserts, where there is also a prevalence of poor health outcomes.

The good news is that the creation of community gardens in these areas can lead to significant positive changes in people's health and well-being. In places with food insecurity, community gardens can be a lifeline, helping to address hunger in many households. An increase in food security can occur when a community garden is within walking distance of residential areas, particularly in urban neighborhoods. Produce from a community garden can also help fill in gaps left when a food pantry or food bank can't provide fresh produce.

Good for the Environment

Converting vacant lots into community gardens not only removes an eyesore, but can also help restore degraded soil that can become safeguarded for the production of food. Restoring soil quality and fertility also yields benefits such as increased carbon sequestration, reduced stormwater runoff, and improved water-holding capacity.

Green spaces like community gardens also have the added benefit of encouraging life to come back to an area. Pollinators, insects, birds, and other wild animals help contribute to a community garden's growth, output, and stabilization of the environment.

There's also a chance to improve air quality, decrease " food miles" and subsequent air pollution, and reduce neighborhood waste through composting.

Unfortunately, low-income areas tend to suffer disproportionately from environmental problems. In many situations, contaminants in urban soil come from industry, unauthorized dumping, construction, heavy traffic, and adjacent buildings that may have lead paint exposure. If you're starting a community garden in an area that may have a history of exposure to pollutants, it's wise to get the soil tested for lead and other possible contaminants (or build raised garden beds) to make sure it's safe for growing food. Many local gardens work to restore soil, so it's usable and free of contamination, using things like compost, organic matter, mulch, and mushrooms.

Offer Health Benefits

Community gardens are also great ways to improve community health. Eating more fresh produce is associated with better self-esteem, mood, and general health. People who enjoy fruits and vegetables often experience reduced stress and improved resilience.

And people who grow fruits and veggies themselves are more likely to eat fruits and vegetables. This is especially true of children, who are five times more likely to eat produce if they have a hand (or two) in growing them. Kids who grow up exposed to fresh produce and edible gardening have more familiarity with fresh, healthy whole foods. They know what different fruits and vegetables look like, taste like, and how to grow and prepare them - skills that will serve them for a lifetime.

Eating a diet that includes fresh fruit and vegetables has a positive impact on the gut microbiome, too. Feeding your gut well, and promoting a healthy balance of good bacteria, is key to supporting your overall health. Research shows that the composition of soil in which your food is grown can help increase the number of beneficial microbes in your gut.

Furthermore, physical activity is higher among people who garden. And according to some studies, gardeners tend to have fewer problems with excess weight compared to people who don't garden - even among close relatives.

Growing Skills and Deepening Culture

Community gardens can also provide opportunities for skill-building, employment, and education. Many gardens utilize volunteers, but there's also the potential for employment and internships for teens and adults alike - a fantastic opportunity for hands-on training and work experience.

Many communities are also using gardens to create opportunities for rehabilitation and skill-building for homeless individuals, veterans, and the disabled community. Community garden work has even been shown to reduce the likelihood of prisoners re-offending. For example, the Sandusky County Jail Garden reports that when inmates participate in the jail's garden program, their odds of being rearrested drop by 55%.

Many gardens also host workshops and other classes on a variety of topics related to gardening and growing food, connecting with the land, sustainability, and cultural issues, which can provide further connection and personal growth. They can also play an important role in providing space to preserve and nurture the cultural identity of communities, fostering a sense of belonging and generating a sense of home among participants, while also helping them to adapt to a multicultural environment.

One example is the casitas, or small houses, in community gardens of the Lower East Side in New York City, which has helped the Puerto Rican community there connect with their heritage. Many tribal community gardens and farms - like the Indigenous Gardens Network - may also highlight the importance of educating members about ancestral foods and practices.

Generate Local Income

Community gardens can also bring in a little extra income for a community. Some gardens sell some of what they harvest at local farmers markets or through CSAs. And other community members can benefit financially by lowering the amount they have to spend at the grocery store or on food overall. What's more, property owners may generate income by renting plots of land out for use as a garden.

Community Gardening Organizations to Support

If you're interested in supporting community garden organizations that help make these gardens happen, here are a few to consider:

Each Green Corner is a 501(c)(3) organization founded by attorney Sandie Nierenberg. She saw a future where people share their spare resources to build strong, healthy, and sustainable communities - while healing the planet. The organization's mission is to educate and assist community members in growing sustainable, permaculture-inspired, and culturally diverse food gardens, and then harvest excess produce for donation to local nonprofit food distribution partners.

Soul Fire Farm is an Afro-Indigenous-centered community farm located in Petersburg, New York. It's dedicated to creating a sovereign food system, ending food apartheid, and uprooting racism. Part of their approach is to train the next generation of activist-farmers while also strengthening the movements for food sovereignty and community self-determination.

Soul Fire Farm's programs reach over 10,000 people annually, including their Black and brown farmer training, food justice workshops, reparations and land return initiatives for northeast farmers, food delivery to insecure households, and policy education. To support Soul Fire Farm, consider taking one of their (if you're in the NY area), making a donation , or looking through their volunteer opportunities .

(Watch the video interview or read the transcript of my Food Revolution Conversation with Soul Fire Farm's co-founder and co-director, Leah Penniman, .)

How to Find or Start a Community Garden

Looking to locate - or perhaps start - a community garden in your area? Here are some tips.

To find an existing garden, check out the American Community Garden Association database.

The University of Missouri also recommends these ten steps to bring your community garden from idea to success:

1. Talk with friends, neighbors, and local organizations about your idea to gauge interest.

2. Hold a meeting with anyone interested in the garden to determine the feasibility of making it happen.

3. Find and evaluate potential garden sites by exploring the area in detail, considering possible partners and plots of land. If necessary, get the soil tested for lead and other contaminants.

4. Identify local resources needed for starting a garden, like tools, infrastructure, knowledge, and supplies - and where these might be obtained.

5. Hold a second meeting to discuss notes from your initial meeting and cover additional questions and issues that have arrived since then.

6. Draft a lease agreement that outlines obligations and responsibilities of the parties involved.

7. Develop a site plan that includes things like lot boundaries, water source, individual or shared plots, compost bins, storage and sheds, open spaces, and a garden sign.

8. Establish gardener guidelines and draft the gardener application, which will include things like member fees and the application process, when your growing season will run, whether materials and tools will be shared, how pests will be controlled, guidelines for how to treat other people's garden plots, and whether kids and pets are allowed in the garden.

9. Prepare and develop the site, which will take time and require scheduled workdays, leaders, and collaborators.

10. Celebrate your success! Throw a garden party for all involved to look at how far you've come and discuss plans for moving forward.

For a more comprehensive step-by-step to starting a community garden, check out this guide provided by the University of California Cooperative Extension.

Community Gardens Are Powerful

There are obviously a lot of problems in the world. And some days you may feel that the problems are just too much; that there's nothing you can do. When I feel that way, I think about the last line of Candide, by Voltaire. After facing one disaster after another, and finding no support or solace in the philosophies of those he encounters, Candide ends his tale with a single realization: "We must cultivate our garden."

Or, to paraphrase Edmund Burke, nobody makes a greater mistake than one who does nothing because they think they can do only a little.

One of the best things you can do right now is just to empower others to cultivate their existing gardens, so that the movement to take care of our planet and to take care of our own health, can spread and flourish across the globe. We can take responsibility for what is right in front of us, and make it grow into something strong, beautiful, and bountiful.

Tell us in the comments:
Feature image: iStock.com/kali9

Do you have a community garden in your neighborhood?

Have you ever participated in the start-up of a community garden?

If so, what benefits have you observed or personally experienced from having a community garden?

Read Next:

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Community gardens are a great way to increase food security, improve public health, and even reduce crime rates. With a variety of setups, locations, and goals, they can play an important role in making healthy, ethical, and sustainable food available to ever more people.

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How to Stop Bullying! Examples & and Best Solutions (For Students)

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Twinkl Teaching Resources - United States

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What is Bullying? for Kids | How to Stop Bullying | National Bullying Prevention Month | Twinkl USA

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Explaining Bullying to Kids (Facts for Kids)| SEL

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Be an Upstander - Prevent Bullying: A NED Short

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What to do about... Bullying! - SEL Sketches

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US Department of Health and Human Services

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Assistant Secretary for Public Affairs (ASPA)

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There are things you can do to keep yourself and the kids you know safe from bullying. Find out more at StopBullying.gov.

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Learn key facts about bullying and explore practical solutions to prevent and address this harmful behavior to make a difference.