Research & reports

Dennis W. Duncan, Ashley Collins, Nicholas E. Fuhrman, D. A. Knauft, David Berle · Journal of Agricultural Education · United States

This study used a quantitative questionnaire to assess the impacts of an urban school garden program on 31 middle school students enrolled in an agriscience connections course in the United States. Data analysis revealed that the cultivation aspect of the program had the greatest positive outcome on urban middle school youth. Students with a family garden showed greater interest in participating, and culinary activities were highly enjoyed, with over 60% agreement on all related items.

Daniel Orlins Trigg · ScholarWorks -A service of University of Vermont Libraries (University of Vermont) · United States

This study investigated food insecurity screening among clinicians in Vermont, where 76% of residents experience some level of food insecurity. It found that physicians and physician assistants prefer using an established two-item screen for food insecurity. However, these clinicians tend to underestimate the actual prevalence of food insecurity in their practice communities.

Bethany B. Cutts, Danqi Fang, Kaitlyn Hornik, Jonathan London, Kirsten Schwarz, Mary L. Cadenasso · Environmental Justice · United States (California)

This study introduced a Qualitative Historical Geographic Information System (QHGIS) method to investigate how newspapers reflect changing meanings of place in relation to environmental burden and benefit. Applying QHGIS to urban gardening and soil lead issues reported in Sacramento, California, the method revealed the distribution of public narratives of environmental concern across the city, the politics embedded in location names, place name-changes, and how locations serve as framing devices for environmental concerns.

Kate Gardner Burt · Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition · United States

This article explores the social, health, and political contexts influencing the school gardening movement in the United States from 1840 to 2014. It demonstrates that school gardens have remained a mainstay due to their adaptability and ability to connect with important social, health, and political issues over 150 years.

John Taylor, Sarah Taylor Lovell, Sam E. Wortman, M.K. Chan · Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems · United States (Chicago)

In Chicago, semi-structured interviews and plant inventories were conducted with 59 African American, Chinese-origin, and Mexican-origin households regarding ecosystem services and tradeoffs in their home food gardens. A total of 387 plant species were identified; gardens of African American households were rich in ornamental species, while those of Chinese-origin households had a depauperate flora. Shade trees and a developed shrub layer were absent from most gardens, suggesting a tradeoff in ecosystem services favoring food production. Only 9.6% of the inventoried species were native to the Chicago area.

Heather McMillen, Lindsay P. Campbell, Erika S. Svendsen, Renae Reynolds · Sustainability · United States (New York City)

This study analyzed qualitative data from community-managed open spaces in the New York City area, including living memorials and a community garden, that have responded to chronic pressures and acute disturbances such as a hurricane and a terrorist attack. Using a deductive coding approach drawing on existing resilience frameworks, it identified grounded stewardship practices demonstrating community-level indicators of social resilience: place attachment, social cohesion, social networks, and knowledge exchange and diversification.

Thenral Mangadu, Michael P. Kelly, Max C. E. Orezzoli, Rebecca Gallegos, Pracheta Matharasi · Health Promotion International · United States

In the US–Mexico border region — El Paso, Texas, and Las Cruces and Anthony, New Mexico, areas with high obesity rates — three pilot community gardens funded through the local Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) initiative were implemented by two local governmental organizations and one community-based organization (2016). A built environment marked by an arid desert climate, lack of access to healthy foods, barriers to physical activity, and cultural and community norms that deter healthy eating and sustainable food production contributes to obesity-related health disparities in these minority communities. A mixed-methods evaluation (n=223) examined the implementation process, immediate outcomes and best practices of implementing and sustaining the gardens. Beyond nutrition-related outcomes, potential psychosocial outcomes from participating in the community and school garden projects were observed. Best practices identified concerned (i) assessing community norms related to growing food, (ii) increasing access to land and water for community and school gardening, and (iii) enhancing social support for gardening.

Linda Naeve, Catherine Strohbehn · Iowa State University Digital Repository (Iowa State University) · United States

As more consumers use Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms for their fresh produce, this publication discusses how to keep food safe before, during, and after delivery, from harvest through storage.

Tylar Setser · Journal of Small Business Strategy · United States

A report by a FoodCorps Member in Mississippi, USA, describes responsibilities including grant writing, school garden development, and educational outreach, coordinating with local farmers and local District Nutrition Directors to source local produce into school cafeterias. It describes benefits for children including learning to describe healthy choices, identifying new fruits and vegetables, and being introduced to different nutritious recipes and food preparations. Building on the author's experience and that of colleagues, it provides teachers with information for securing fresh, local produce on behalf of children's health and guidelines for creating a "culture of food appreciation."

Rosalie M. Sharp · Wellesley College Digital RepositoryWellesley (Wellesley College) · United States

Through an interdisciplinary literature review and interviews with stakeholders in the Boston, Massachusetts urban agriculture network — including The Food Project — this study examines the social and historical context of lead exposure in urban gardens in the Dudley neighborhood. It shows that products of structural racism, particularly redlining and disinvestment, created the social and physical environments that allow lead contamination to persist in low-income communities of color like Dudley. An alternate growing material or soil amendment was found to dilute lead concentrations, reduce lead bioaccessibility, and limit fine particle resuspension, and working with The Food Project, these findings shaped gardeners' behavior to reduce lead exposure. The findings on urban soil lead bioaccessibility are presented as contributing to a broader body of research that informs policy decisions such as benchmarks for safe soil or compost lead levels.

Tiffany B. Hunter · CORE Scholar (Wright State University) · United States

A pilot study (Wright State University, CORE Scholar, 2016) adapted a community garden and environmental education model, first observed during an internship with Israel's Ministry of Health in an Arab village, to an urban, minority-concentrated school population in Dayton, Ohio. Administered in July 2016 at a local foodbank with a pre-existing urban garden, using an eight-week curriculum, the pilot found that participants—who lived in urban, low-income areas—had poor eating habits and low literacy scores at baseline, though the program was reported to enhance participants' learning and understanding of the world around them.

James E. Allen, Jairus Rossi, Timothy A. Woods, Alison F. Davis · International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability · United States

A survey of 151 shareholders across three midsized Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) operations near Lexington, Kentucky (International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability, 2016), addressed a gap in prior research that had relied mostly on small samples (n < 25). Using 20 paired before/after questions, paired two-sided t-tests, and regression of paired differences on socioeconomic factors, self-reported health, and years of CSA enrollment, the study found that food lifestyle behaviors and health outcomes changed after CSA participation, with respondents who reported "poor health" before enrollment showing the most change overall. The authors describe these results as an initial analysis of CSA's impact on shareholder food lifestyle behaviors and health outcomes.

Adriella Camila Gabriela F. da S. Furtado da Silva, Danielle Regina Bento Lessa da Silva, Ana Carolina Damm dos Santos Gomes de Farias, Joyce Alves Carvalho Martins, Caroline Giot Bronner, Mônica de Caldas Rosa dos Anjos · Cadernos de Agroecologia · Brazil

A report on the "Cultivando Saúde" (Cultivating Health) program in Brazil examines an effort linking urban agriculture practice to promoting healthy eating habits and productive use of urban space for food production. Using participatory methods, dialogue-promoting activities emphasizing knowledge exchange were carried out over three months, yielding a positive response in the acceptance and adoption of suggested recipes; the practice of growing one's own food was observed both in participants' statements during group sessions and during household visits.

Berezowitz C., Bontrager Yoder A., Schoeller D. · Journal of School Health, 85(8):508-518 · United States

A review examining the academic and dietary effects of school garden programs. It found that garden-based learning does not harm academic performance and may favorably affect science and math achievement as well as fruit and vegetable intake and preferences.

Sharma S.V., Hedberg A.M., Skala K.A., Chuang R.-J., Lewis T. · Journal of Early Childhood Research, 13(1):93–110 · United States (Texas)

An 8-week teacher-led PLANT Gardens (Preschoolers Learn About Nutrition Through Gardens) program with 103 Head Start preschoolers in two Harris County, Texas centers. Confirmed feasibility and acceptability and a significant increase in parent-reported willingness to try new fruits and vegetables.

Valerie Calberry, Lori Pivarnik, Ingrid Lofgren · The FASEB Journal · United States (Rhode Island)

An intervention study, part of a Rhode Island Farm to School project overseen by the nonprofit Farm Fresh RI, aimed at improving elementary and middle school students' knowledge and practices around the food safety of school-garden produce. Two lessons on good vs. bad bacteria, hand hygiene, and harvesting/washing were delivered to 115 children aged 5–11, and knowledge scores rose significantly by over 39% (from 5.3±1.8 to 7.4±2.0).

Brian Wansink, Andrew S. Hanks, David R. Just · Acta Paediatrica · United States (New York)

Using a before/after tray-waste design, this pilot tested whether a cold-climate high school garden could influence vegetable intake without nutrition education. At an upstate New York high school, adding garden-grown greens to the salad bar raised the share of students selecting salad from 2% to 10% and students ate about two-thirds of what they took, though waste rose from 5.56% to 33.33% per serving.

Lea Rekow · · Brazil (Rio de Janeiro)

This paper describes key initiatives in urban agriculture within Rio de Janeiro's favela communities, which are experiencing displacement and destabilization due to rapid urbanization policies. These initiatives aim to create resilient and productive spaces, particularly addressing food and nutrition security amidst socio-economic and security landscape changes.

Nancy M. Wells, Beth M. Myers, Lauren Todd, Karen Barale, Brad Gaolach, Gretchen Ferenz, Martha Aitken, Charles Henderson, Caroline C. Tse, Karen Ostlie Pattison, Cayla Taylor, Laura Connerly, Janet B. Carson, Alexandra Z. Gensemer, Nancy Franz, Elizabeth C. Falk · International Journal of Science Education · United States

A randomized controlled trial in 25 low-income elementary schools across four US states (n=3,061 students aged 6-12) examined the effect of a school garden intervention on science knowledge from Fall 2011 to Spring 2013. While science knowledge increased more in the intervention group than in the control group, overall scores remained poor and gains were very modest. A dose-response relationship was observed, where more robust intervention implementations correlated with stronger treatment effects.

Andrew Koval · Educational Media Reviews Online · United States (New York City)

The 27-minute documentary film "Brooklyn Farmer" (2014) covers organic urban rooftop farming as a business. The film offers perspectives on the cost of farm labor's exposure to pesticides versus the increased cost of organic vegetables, citing aesthetics, supply chain reduction, and human health as benefits of urban farming. While noted for its informative text and enhanced production value, a stated limitation is that it should have featured farmers in a more traditional vegetable production capacity to provide a diversity of opinion concerning the market.

Amy Wagenfeld, Erica Whitfield · Children Youth and Environments · United States (Florida)

In January 2010, the School District of Palm Beach County, Florida, received a grant to install school/community gardens to reduce obesity and increase access to fresh produce among minority communities, primarily Hispanic children and families. A 42-item survey measured the gardens' usability, curricular integration, movement/exercise capacities, and health benefits. Findings indicated that participating in garden programs positively influenced students' and teachers' lives.

Silvana Maria Ribeiro, Cláudia Maria Bógus, Helena Akemi Wada Watanabe · · Brazil (São Paulo)

This paper systematizes the experience of the "Colhendo Sustentabilidade" project, implemented in Embu das Artes, São Paulo metropolitan region, from 2008 to 2011, analyzing it from a Health Promotion perspective. Data was obtained through workshops and interviews with participants, public service technicians, and project team members. Conclusions revealed that agroecological urban agriculture serves as a health-promoting tool by contributing to individual and community empowerment, creating favorable health environments, and multiplying knowledge on income generation, health, and environment.

Jason Murillo, Environmental Health BCIT School of Health Sciences, Bobby Sidhu · BCIT Environmental Public Health Journal · Canada (Vancouver)

An online survey of 101 community gardeners from 23 community gardens in Vancouver, Canada, investigated perceptions of soil health and contamination. The study found no association between soil testing and garden location, nor between garden location and gardeners' confidence in soil safety. Despite potential health concerns from contaminated soil, community gardeners refrained from soil testing and remained confident in their soil's safety, indicating a gap in safety standards.

Bhavna Shamasunder, R Mason, Luke Ippoliti, Laura Robledo · Environmental Justice · United States (Los Angeles)

A community-based research project in Pacoima, Los Angeles, examined 36 families who received home gardens, training, and support in 2013. Following families through one planting cycle, data showed the potential for home gardens to contribute to household food budgets, increase home pride, motivate community involvement, and provide green spaces. This project aims to address the research gap on home gardens' benefits and challenges.

Hugo Puerto · Journal of International Crisis and Risk Communication Research · United States (Florida)

This ethnographic study in Indian River County, Florida, investigated challenges in engaging Mexican im/migrant farmworkers in community-based health solutions, specifically community gardens. Despite efforts by farmworker leaders and the health department to promote community gardens for health and economic benefits, little engagement was observed within the farmworker community. The research, based on participant observation, surveys, and interviews, analyzed barriers to healthy eating and the limited role of grassroots initiatives in improving health outcomes.