Executive Summary
Community gardens, defined as a piece of land cultivated by a group of people individually or collectively, can improve food security in rural and urban areas, improve health outcomes for all ages, and provide working green spaces within densely urbanized areas. Many communities are establishing community gardens in public parks.
Science Highlights
Limitations
Columbia, Missouri
In Columbia, MO, the Parks and Recreation department received a 200 acre land donation in the Third Ward in January 2023, with land set aside by request of the donor for community garden plots (Columbia MO City Council Meeting 01/17/2023). Public hearings over the next year will be held about whether community garden space will be included as an amenity when developing this new park for Columbia residents.
Throughout Missouri, there are 207 existing community garden programs, in both urban and rural communities. They are located on vacant lots in cities and rural towns, in schoolyards, on properties of churches and synagogues, and in other public spaces. The Missouri legislature enacted legislation in 2010 to support urban/small-scale agriculture (HB 1848) and the Missouri Department of Agriculture has a small grants program dedicated to supporting urban farming. Additionally, several municipalities have ordinances specifically supporting community garden initiatives (Kansas City, Springfield, Columbia).
Public Health. Community gardeners interviewed in 2010 rated stress relief as the most important reason for gardening (56%), as well as staying active (50%), and staying healthy (42%) (van den Berg, A., et al., 2010). Direct health outcomes for gardeners and their families have been documented as well. A study of garden participants in 2012 showed that participating in a garden program decreased an individual’s diabetic blood marker from >9% to <7% (Weltin and Lavin, 2012). Another study from 2013 showed a benefit in lowered body mass index (BMI) for community gardeners vs their neighbors: Women community gardeners’ average BMI was 1.48 lower than their neighbors’ BMI, and men community gardeners’ average BMI was 2.52 lower than their neighbors’ (Zick, C. et al 2013).
Community gardens also enhance community connectivity. In a survey of 300+ community gardeners, most said that they felt their gardens improve their sense of community and have a positive effect on their neighborhoods in engaging diverse populations (Ohmer, 2009). These neighborhood-level relationships can also build resilience to social and ecological challenges (Clarke et al., 2019).
A study of community gardens in 12 southeastern Missouri counties in 2013 showed that the participants were more likely to meet their daily fruit and vegetable recommendations (consumption of fruit two or more times a day and vegetables three or more times a day) than non-gardeners (Barnidge, et al., 2013). Another study found that adults participating in a community garden increased consumption of fresh vegetables by four times, and youth participants increased consumption three-fold (Carney, et al. 2012).
Community garden plots are considered an important tool in remedying food deserts, defined by the USDA as locations where the distance to full-service supermarkets is more than one mile (urban) or ten miles (rural). In one urban area, community gardens helped to increase sources of fresh food in the city’s core from 12 to 32 options (Wang et al., 2014). In another study, participation in a rural community garden program reduced gardeners’ concerns about food insecurity from 31% to 3% (Carney et al, 2012)
In Columbia, the proposed location for the community garden within the newly designated parkland is in a USDA designated ‘food desert’ zone, where many residents are low-income and have limited access to a full-service grocery store (Figure 1,USDA.gov) A study of food insecurity in Missouri found that 4 out of 5 low income individuals stated that their access to fresh food improved when they participated in a community garden program. (Barnidge et al., 2013)
Environmental Health. Community gardens also provide significant direct and indirect benefits to the surrounding population and environment. A study of gardens in New York City estimates that community gardens divert approximately 12 million gallons of stormwater annually that would otherwise run into the sewer system (Gittleman et al., 2016). Green space provided by 10,000 community gardens over the past ten years has trapped 190,000 tons of carbon, offsetting about one year's worth of carbon emissions for 30,400 Americans (Okvat and Zautra, 2011). Urban green space, including parks and gardens, reduces temperatures attributed to the Urban Heat Island Effect by as much as 10% (Aram et al., 2019). Indirectly, growing food in the community means less reliance on food transportation from faraway regions and less energy spent storing and cooling produce for long distances, as well as opportunities for composting scraps that otherwise end up in landfills (Okvat and Zautra, 2011).
The Third Ward of Columbia has a population of 21,000, and neighborhoods there will be the most impacted by this new proposed greenspace (Figure 1). However, the land donation and preservation as green space will impact the entire population of Columbia MO (pop 126,000) since the proposed park and gardens are in the floodplain of the Hinkson Creek, Columbia’s largest watershed (CoMo.gov). One recent study showed that an increase of one km in urban greenspace in a floodplain has been estimated to save up to $44,000 in financial damages from flooding (Kim, 2021).
Fig 1. Columbia MO Third Ward and food access points.
The dotted line defines Columbia’s 3rd Ward city council district. The yellow overlay identifies qualified low income census tracts. The grocery cart icons show full service grocery stores, all of which are more than one half mile from the qualified low income area around the proposed park. Click here to explore the interactive map.
While individuals, neighborhoods, and the environment can experience substantial benefits from community gardens, there are a number of challenges to keeping a community garden program supported in the long run. Sustainability of gardens is a consistent problem, because many community gardens are established on vacant property that is available for other development at any time. One survey of Canadian and U.S. community gardens found that programs cited loss of land as the cause of a garden’s closure 59% of the time (Drake et. al 2015). In a survey of 50 community garden locations in the U.S., over half expressed concern about the future of their gardening space (Guitart et al, 2012).
Nationally, there are more than 29,000 garden plots in city parks — up 22% from 2021 (Trust for Public Lands). The National Recreation and Parks Association profiles two examples in its handbook on best practices in establishing gardens in city parks (NRPA). They include the Victory Garden located under the Miami Beach Parks and Recreation in Florida and several community gardens run by the City of Sacramento, CA, Parks and Recreation department. In each of these cases, the Parks and Recreation departments provided the land on city property and initial start-up support. The gardens are often managed by community-led groups. In Missouri, the Kansas City non-profit, KCCG, maintains a garden located in Swope Park which is part of the Kansas City Parks and Recreation system. In Blue Springs, MO, the community gardens in Central Park are administered directly by the city.
Community gardens could enhance the overall value of parkland, since several studies show that property values tend to increase in areas surrounding community gardens, typically by >10% (Cochran and Minaker, 2020). Parks themselves are associated with a 10-20% increase in property value for nearby homeowners (Crompton, 2001). In the city of Seattle, as the city’s budget for park maintenance and operations has decreased, community gardens’ integration into parks has reduced staffing pressures since the garden sites are maintained predominantly by gardeners rather than Parks crew (Hou and Grohmann, 2018).
[1] See MOST Science Note on Food Insecurity and Urban Agriculture
[2] See MOST Community Note on Urban Heat Islands and Climate Change
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