Research & reports

Chong Ling Chan, Pui Yee Tan, Yun Yun Gong · Proceedings of The Nutrition Society · Global

This record is a systematic review evaluating the effectiveness of school garden-based programs on nutrition-related knowledge, attitudes and practices among school children aged 3 to 18; no abstract text is available for this content beyond that description, so no further findings can be reported here.

Clare Jackson, Sara Ronzi · Health Education & Behavior · United Kingdom

A 2021 study used photovoice methods to explore residents' perceptions and experiences of "The Grange," a community-led, multifaceted intervention incorporating a community hub and garden in a small, high-deprivation, poor-health area of North-West England. Through photographs, semi-structured interviews, a focus group, and a photo exhibition, it engaged intensively with six residents, who identified positive and negative aspects of activities such as the community garden and community shop and communicated recommendations directly to policymakers at the exhibition event. Participants reported valuing the culture of inclusivity and friendship associated with The Grange more than the specific activities themselves.

Sri Adiningsih, Siti Rahayu Nadhiroh, Farapti · Acta Scientifci Nutritional Health · Indonesia

This 2021 study examines Indonesia's Home Gardening Zone (HGZ) program, launched by the Ministry of Agriculture to increase dietary diversity and food security, with the aim of assessing why community gardeners participate in the program and exploring its potential impacts on community and household food security.

Daniel Remley, Glennon Sweeney, Julie Fox, Laquore Ja Meadows · Journal of Human Sciences and Extension · United States

U.S. Cooperative Extension is positioned to address suburban food insecurity, citing data that low-income populations in the country's largest metro-area suburbs grew twice as fast as in primary urban cities between 2000 and 2013, and that a 2018 Pew Research Center report found poverty rising more sharply in suburbs than in urban or rural counties. Stigmatization of food assistance, lack of transportation, limited access to food pantries and limited community gardens are identified as challenges specific to suburban poor communities, with Extension proposed to address the problem through community-engaged research and education across family and consumer sciences, community development, agriculture and natural resources, and 4-H youth development.

Shahida Mohd Sharif, Norsidah Ujang · INDONESIAN JOURNAL OF URBAN AND ENVIRONMENTAL TECHNOLOGY · Indonesia

Noting that more than 50% of the population is projected to live in urban areas by 2050, and that urban migration raises the risk of insufficient social support leading to individualism, social isolation, and loneliness, a conceptual framework is proposed for investigating the level of social bonding among participants in community gardening activities. The paper argues that the choice of urban green space type is critical for wellbeing, positions community gardens as an intervention strategy for reintegrating socially isolated people into community life, and suggests that urban designers and policymakers adopt community gardens as safe public spaces for social interaction.

Anne Cleary, Julie Dean, Danielle Pollock, Lisa McDaid, Frances M. Boyle · JBI Evidence Synthesis · Global

A protocol for a scoping review aiming to understand the types of nature-based interventions currently used in bereavement care and to map the theories of change explaining how such interventions may support bereavement care. It notes bereavement can be associated with adverse psychosocial health outcomes, describes this as an emerging research field, and states there is a need to explore the literature on different types of nature-based interventions used in bereavement care, including animal-assisted therapy, care farming, therapeutic horticulture, and community gardens, and to identify the underpinning theories of change. Inclusion criteria cover studies or reviews of participants who experienced bereavement following the death of a loved one and took part in a nature-based intervention, across all nature contexts and geographic locations. The planned method searches eight databases—Web of Science, Scopus, PubMed, PsycINFO, CINAHL, Social Science Database (ProQuest), PTSDpubs (ProQuest), and Research Library: Health and Medicine (ProQuest)—plus manual reference-list and keyword searches, extracting data on intervention type, target sample, health outcomes, measures and methods, and theory of change, to be presented in tabular format with a narrative summary.

Ágnes Gagyi, Csaba Jelinek, Zsuzsanna Pósfai, András Vígvári · · Europe

This chapter examines the 2000s housing financialization wave in Hungary, analysing financial over-inclusion and exclusion -- alternating dynamics of reaping gains and externalizing costs. It shows that "intermediate" rural-urban transitional zones are prime areas for high-risk mortgage lending while also containing spaces excluded from institutionalized housing finance, using as its case study an allotment garden where households combine formal jobs and mortgage repayment with informal dwelling to reduce housing costs, arguing that such informal reproductive solutions function as a resource for capital accumulation through inclusion and exclusion.

Irina Mildawani, Arief Rahman · The Journal of Synergy Landscape · Indonesia

A survey of 148 respondents in the Jabodetabek region of Indonesia, conducted via Google Form between July and December 2020, examined household gardening preferences during the COVID-19 pandemic compared with activities before and predicted after it. Using qualitative content analysis (QCA), the study assessed emotional well-being and explored variation in garden type — vegetable versus ornamental plants, community versus household gardens, and who was involved. Gardening was seen as a favorable activity generating happy family time, with respondents wanting to continue it after the pandemic, but landscape architects had not yet been chosen as gardeners when professional assistance was needed.

Farida Rahmawati, Ana Chusniatul Hidayah, Aida Nur Faizah, Ahmad Falahuddin, Muhammad Adryan Okuputra · Journal of Social Development Studies · Indonesia

This study examined the actions and innovations of Gelar Gulung, a citizen movement in Tegalweru Village, Tegalrejo District, Yogyakarta City, Indonesia, aimed at meeting residents' food needs independently during the COVID-19 pandemic. Using a descriptive method with qualitative data gathered through observation, interviews, and literature review, the study identified five categories of action: (a) participatory mapping of self-reliant residents, (b) food emergency response, (c) social action for economic independence, (d) livelihood network building, and (e) urban farming (food-stock gardening). The report states these activities received a positive response from stakeholders, having increased food security during the pandemic and supported long-term economic independence.

Dwiyana Anela Kurniasari, Siti Alimah, Agus Subhan Prasetyo, Nur Hafif · Prosiding Seminar Nasional Gender & Inklusi Sosial UWP · Indonesia

A study analyzed participation levels among PKK (Family Welfare and Empowerment) members in RT05/RW06 of the Balasklumprik area in Wiyung district, Surabaya, Indonesia, in a hydroponics training program conducted by the Agribusiness Study Program of Universitas Wijaya Putra in July 2020. Participation rates were 100% for seedling-raising training, 80% for hydroponic nutrition training, 86.67% success in the first pakcoy harvest, and 73.33% of members continued hydroponic cultivation after the training; descriptive analysis concluded that PKK members participated well in each activity of the hydroponics program.

Kit Prendergast, Amelie M. Vanderstock, Heather Neilly, Catherine E. Ross, Vanessa Pirotta, Patrick Tegart · Austral Ecology · Australia

A reflection on a citizen science project in which five early-career and PhD female researchers guided school-age children across five schools to build artificial flowers, install them on school ovals, and record over repeated 10-minute observations how flower colour (yellow vs. blue) and configuration (isolated, clumped adjacent, clumped mixed-colour, clumped single-colour) affected the number and taxa of visiting insects. The project achieved a low-cost, engaging format and exposure to female STEM role models, but the authors report constraints including having to run it in a season made suboptimal by fixed school curricula, confounding of results caused by the children's own observations, and an inability to verify the collected data.

Harneet Kaur Dhillon, Alyssa Thorman, Jordan A. Franchina · Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition · United States

A report on a community-garden-and-food-pantry project to ease food insecurity among medical students at the University of Utah. Medical students planted and maintained a 400-square-foot garden and hosted numerous skills workshops; volunteers harvested 250 pounds of produce, and the food pantry managed distribution of over 6,500 pounds of other donated food items. The sustainable garden and pantry provided a significant amount of no-cost healthy food to students, and the study states that the scale of student involvement and food utilization demonstrates the need for novel strategies to address medical student food insecurity.

Harine Matos Maciel, Jair do Amaral Filho, Wlisses Matos Maciel · Latin American Journal of Development · Brazil

This case study of Banco Palmas, a solidarity financial system created in 1988 by the Residents Association of Conjunto Palmeira in Brazil, was conducted through documentary and bibliographic research. Banco Palmas pursues local, solidarity-based development in Conjunto Palmeira through microcredit and complementary programs — a training school, an incubator for women at risk, an urban agriculture laboratory, a local currency circulating in neighborhood stores, fairs with local producers, and a solidarity store — and the paper concludes that it demonstrates the feasibility of self-sustainable popular and solidarity development projects through microcredit that stimulates consumption and production within the neighborhood itself.

Melinda Suto, Shelagh A. Smith, Natasha Damiano, Shurli Channe · Canadian Journal of Occupational Therapy · Canada

Sustaining well-being is a challenge for people with serious mental health issues. Community gardening is used as an occupation to promote clients' well-being, though evidence supporting this intervention remains limited. This paper examined how facilitated community gardening programs changed the subjective well-being and social connectedness of people living with mental health issues. Using a community-based participatory research approach and qualitative methods with 23 adults living in supported housing and participating in supported community gardening programs, data were analyzed inductively from a constructivist stance. Participation in the programs enhanced well-being through welcoming places, a sense of belonging, and positive feelings developed through doing. Connection to living things and responsibility for plants grounded participants in the present and offered a distinct venue for learning about gardening and about themselves. The paper concludes that practitioners and service-users should collaborate to develop leadership, programs, places, and processes within community gardens to support well-being.

Maegan Krajewski · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Canada

The North Central Community Gardens, an urban agriculture initiative of the North Central Community Association in Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada, launched the Branch Out Project in summer 2020. Its purpose was to expand the North Central Community Gardens beyond its existing three locations onto additional schoolyard and backyard land. Despite — or perhaps because of — the COVID-19 pandemic, the project's first season resulted in the construction of eight new gardens and positively affected food access, community engagement, and knowledge development and exchange. The commentary has two goals: to provide insight into the process of community garden expansion for the benefit of other practitioners, and to contribute to understanding the possibilities, challenges, and impacts of community gardens generally — and garden expansion specifically — as a counter-neoliberal food sovereignty practice.

James J. Connolly · · United States (California)

This case study examines the leading edge of gentrification along San Francisco's Third Street T streetcar line. Bayview-Hunters Point (B.V.H.P.), the end of the streetcar line's first phase, is an ethnically mixed, working-class neighborhood and the last historic concentration of African American residents in San Francisco. While gentrification-driven change is already visible further up the line, its presence in B.V.H.P. remains comparatively shallow so far. Nonetheless, many residents and community activists perceive that a fast-moving gentrification frontier leaves them with a conundrum: remain in a contaminated, post-industrial, climate-exposed environment, or advocate for their health while risking displacement. The neighborhood has seen greening such as community gardens and a waterfront promenade, alongside inequalities including enduring racial segregation, environmental privilege, green gentrification, luxury development, climate-related health risks, and continued exposure to contamination.

Dwi Aditiyarini, Catarina Aprilia Ariestanti, Aniek Prasetyaningsih, Timothy Charles Wherrett, Hardo Firmana Given Grace Manik, Katon Wijana · Sendimas 2021 - Seminar Nasional Pengabdian kepada Masyarakat · Indonesia

A community-service report on Kampung Sayur Bausasran, a pilot urban agriculture district in Yogyakarta, Indonesia, where the COVID-19 pandemic had reduced productivity and community engagement. Academics from Duta Wacana Christian University (UKDW) ran an empowerment program covering six farmer groups and one Food Yard Movement (Gerakan Pekarangan Pangan) plot, addressing human resources, business, institutional, and environmental development through training, application and simulation of knowledge and technology. Needs were first mapped through interviews with each farmer group's leadership; needs differed by condition, location and land area, but all centered on agriculture-related support, and simple hydroponic cultivation was introduced as one solution. Supporting activities included beautifying the vegetable village and improving management and administration, aimed at developing the area toward education-based ecotourism. The program was well received by village officials and farmer group leaders, producing greened vegetable alleys, diversified processed products, and a website and social media for promotion. The report identifies remaining needs for more detailed mapping of each farmer group's potential and for human-resource development programs to raise community motivation for advancing urban agriculture.

Tatiana de Oliveira Sousa, João Aparecido Bazzoli, Cecília Delgado · Estudos Geográficos Revista Eletrônica de Geografia · Brazil

An exploratory study examined an urban gardening project run by the municipal government of Palmas, capital of Tocantins state, Brazil, analyzing challenges in setup and maintenance, administrative difficulties in production and distribution, and the socioeconomic profile of participating families. Surveying the gardeners' profiles and practices, the study found that the urban gardens promoted social inclusion of participating families, particularly low-income, unemployed, elderly, and women gardeners.

Kathleen Tims, Mark Haggerty, John Jemison, Melissa Ladenheim, Sarah Mullis, Elizabeth Damon · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · United States

A case study of the long-running Orono Community Garden (OCG) program in Orono, Maine, used survey data and personal interviews to examine rural senior food insecurity, analyzing senior participation, impact on food security status, and participants' perceptions of the program. The OCG program increased food access by delivering fresh food directly to senior households in need, alongside other local food assistance programs in Orono. Participants also viewed the OCG program as a destigmatized, socially acceptable source of food access, in contrast with other food assistance programs.

Teguh Husodo, Keukeu Kaniawati Rosada, Mia Miranti, Nining Ratningsih, Suryana Suryana · Kumawula Jurnal Pengabdian Kepada Masyarakat · Indonesia

Micro, small, and medium enterprises (UMKM) are described as a community effort at self-empowerment aimed at creating independent business opportunities that rely on the community's own abilities and creativity, an effort requiring entrepreneurship support to build understanding of production processes and product benefits. Seven of thirty UMKM in Desa Cinunuk, Bandung Regency, Indonesia (divided into six categories), were analyzed using nine indicators of the business model canvas method. One developed UMKM was additionally identified as potential not only from an economic standpoint but also for community empowerment: use of residents' narrow landholdings combined with the ease of production under the urban farming concept was seen as capable of becoming an iconic business for Desa Cinunuk. The Women Farmers Group (KWT) of Desa Cinunuk is described as having the potential to develop into an advanced UMKM through entrepreneurship support such as completing licensing, pharmacological testing, and certification.

Allea Martin, Amy Coplen, Lauren Lubowicki, Betty T. Izumi · Health Education & Behavior · United States

A Photovoice study of the CSA Partnerships for Health program in the United States, a subsidized community-supported-agriculture scheme designed to lower the cost barrier to fresh produce for low-income households. Twenty-eight participants photographed aspects of the program over 2 to 4 weeks and discussed selected images in focus groups; they reported that the program supported positive changes in their physical and social health and helped them learn about new foods, cooking and agriculture. Based on these self-reported, qualitative accounts, the authors suggest that a reduced-cost CSA membership combined with cooking education can support participants' ability to try new foods, build skills and improve health outcomes.

Mariela Jara · IPS Agencia de Noticias (Inter Press Service) · Peru

IPS News reported on 12 October 2021 on the 1,400 square-meter "Biohuerto Ayllu 21" garden in Sector II Group 21, Villa El Salvador, 25km south of Lima. Started in 2018, the garden has 40 plots of 6 meters each and separate production, training, seedling, harvest, post-harvest and sales zones. It is run by 12 families, all elderly women migrants, who work an average of two days a week growing chard, radishes, broccoli, celery, tomatoes, beets, basil, spinach and lettuce, mainly for household consumption.

Eduardo Sá · Articulação Nacional de Agroecologia (ANA) · Brazil

An article tracing three decades of Belo Horizonte's urban agriculture and agroecology policy, from the 1993 founding of the municipal food and agriculture policy department (SMAB) through the 2004 creation of Amau and the 2018 launch of a participatory organic-certification system (SPG-RMBH). It reports that in 2019 the city's food bank handled 387,905 tons of food and school meal programs served 84.7 million meals.

Alessio Russo, Giuseppe T. Cirella · Agriculture, 10(8), 358 · Global

An empirical study analyzing ten edible green infrastructure (EGI) urban-regeneration case studies in Italy's Campania region through the lens of community development, involvement and education. It documents how citizen-engaged urban gardens contribute to public health (stress reduction, physical activity) and the regeneration of derelict land, with sustainability strengthened by far-sighted urban planning across all five provinces.

Toyoda M., Yokota Y., Barnes M., Kaneko M. · HortTechnology · Japan

Real-office study in Japan showing that intentional contact with a small desk plant reduces office workers' psychological and physiological stress, supporting planting and gardening interventions in the workplace.