Research & reports

Courtney M. Gallaher, Antoinette WinklerPrins, Mary Njenga, Nancy Karanja · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · Kenya (Nairobi)

This research investigated how participation in sack gardening improved the livelihoods of farmers in the Kibera slums of Nairobi, Kenya. The study demonstrates that urban agriculture, particularly low-space activities like sack gardening, can be a viable and important livelihood strategy for households, even in densely populated slum environments.

Beth Perry, ⁄ Walsh, Diana Silver · White Rose Research Online (University of Leeds, The University of Sheffield, University of York) · United Kingdom

This project, conducted from October 2014 to May 2015, focused on the Biospheric Foundation in Blackfriars, East Salford, UK. The Biospheric Foundation was an urban socio-ecological experiment aiming to implement a whole-system approach to urban farming in a deprived area. Its goals included designing interconnected systems, retrofitting a building for ecological research, and raising public awareness of healthy food and ecological systems in urban settings.

Mariah E Reitz · Digital Commons - Otterbein (Otterbein University) · United States

This research aimed to determine if a community garden would benefit a suburban township, Blendon Township, in addressing food insecurity and food deserts. A survey evaluated fruit and vegetable consumption, healthy food affordability, and education, as well as the garden's effect on participants' families. Through a literature review and survey assessment, the results indicated that Blendon Township needed a community garden due to its proximity to Columbus and suburban setting.

이숙미, 김인호 · · South Korea

This study analyzed research trends on community garden programs for homeless self-support in South Korea. Homeless individuals exhibit high rates of physical and mental disabilities, making healthcare crucial for rehabilitation. The abstract suggests that instituting community gardens within supportive housing could offer comprehensive services such as improving sociality, providing job training opportunities, physical and mental health care, and communication spaces for rehabilitation.

임정언, 성종상 · 한국전통조경학회지 · South Korea

This study examined the agricultural philosophy of Seogye Park Sedang and his treatise Saekgyeong (1676) from the Joseon Dynasty, considering its relevance to modern urban agriculture. The research identified four values: socio-economic for small farmers' stability and self-reliance, experiential for agricultural practice as learning, environmental for adapting to nature, and practical for sharing wisdom. These values align with modern urban agriculture's potential contributions to welfare, education, ecological restoration, and knowledge sharing.

Berhe, Sophia · National Academic Digital Repository of Ethiopia · Ethiopia

A comparative study in Akaki-Kaliti Sub-city, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, investigated the contributions of urban agriculture to alleviating food insecurity among 100 randomly selected poor urban households. The study found that one in two sampled households engaged in farming, earning food and cash income, which improved household food security by enhancing food availability (50%) and nutrition (50%).

Michael L. Pennell · Community Literacy Journal · Global

This abstract introduces a special issue of the Community Literacy Journal on community food literacies, highlighting the intertwined relationship between food and literacy. It notes that both are in "revolutionary" stages, with food systems re-localizing through farmers’ markets, CSAs, and community gardens. The issue presents various perspectives on community food literacies, responding to a call for service-learning practitioners and literacy workers to address these expanding relationships.

Jill Rutter · Policy Press eBooks · United Kingdom

This chapter, based on field observations in the UK, examines social interactions in "transversal spaces" such as children's centers, workplaces, online forums, parks, and allotment gardens. These spaces facilitate meaningful social contact between migrants and longer-settled residents, potentially reducing hostility. Research indicates that while interactions across class or age boundaries are common, interactions across ethnic boundaries are less frequent, though individuals aged 18-34 showed the highest ethnic integration.

Selina Dorking, Paige Eisen, Joseph J. Godfrey, Regina López, Steven A. Smith · ScholarWorks - GVSU (Grand Valley State University) · United States

In the Heartside neighborhood of Grand Rapids, Michigan, United States, the non-profit Heartside Gleaning Initiative (HGI) has been addressing food insecurity since 2014. During the winter semester of 2015, the "Food Fighters," a team of Grand Valley State University students, collaborated with HGI to tackle the challenges of food waste, food insecurity, and community sustainability. Their efforts resulted in the Heartside Glean Ride mobile food cart plan and a brochure for Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) boxes, designed to increase food distribution.

Joana Chan, Bryce DuBois, Keith G. Tidball · · United States (New York City)

This study conducted ethnographic research -- including participant observation, exploratory and in-depth interviews, and archival research -- at five community gardens in New York City's coastal "red zones" affected by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, from April 2013 to February 2014. It found that community gardens functioned as multi-purpose community refuges that hosted meaningful, restorative greening practices and developed supportive communities for residents and garden members in the aftermath of the disaster.

Kemisola O. Adenegan, Olubunmi Lawrence Balogun, Taibat Olukemi Yusuf · International Journal of Vegetable Science · Global

A study in a tropical urban setting examined the relationship between households' initial assets and the profitability of urban farming. Two local government areas (LGAs) were randomly selected, and 198 respondents were chosen based on the number of urban farmers in each LGA; interview data were analyzed using descriptive statistics and budgetary techniques. Eighty percent of the urban farmers surveyed had sufficient assets to start a profitable urban farming enterprise.

Ashley Tryba · · United States

A paper on community gardens and urban farms in underserved and gentrifying areas of redevelopment in the United States combines case studies, interviews, quantitative analysis of land values, comparative analysis of vacant land policies, urban archival news documents and photographs, and empirical models of urban land use and food distribution. It states that urban agricultural programs rarely alleviate the pressures of food insecurity on a large scale, while showing that community food gardens function as an oasis from the food insecurity, violence and sexual harassment that urban areas often pose. The qualitative data support existing literature indicating that, if maintained, community agricultural projects produce social, economic, environmental and physical health benefits, and the paper argues that with government support, these small grassroots programs can have larger societal impacts.

Carly Wood, Jules Pretty, Murray Griffin · Journal of Public Health · United Kingdom

A UK case-control study measured self-esteem, mood, and general health in 136 allotment gardeners before and after a gardening session, and compared them with 133 non-gardener controls. Paired t-tests showed a significant improvement in self-esteem following an allotment session, and one-way ANCOVA showed allotment gardeners had significantly better self-esteem, total mood disturbance, and general health than controls (P<0.001), with less depression and fatigue and more vigour (P<0.0083).

Steven Masvaure · Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems · Africa

A mixed-methods study of 103 households in Glen Norah Township, Harare, Zimbabwe used semi-structured interviews, questionnaires and observations to examine urban agriculture as a poverty coping mechanism. Poor households were found to spend more than 60% of their income on food alone. The research proposed an Urban Livelihoods Coping Model (ULCM), which attributes the emergence of urban agriculture to necessity, ability and opportunity shaped by the socio-historical context of Western-leaning development policies, modernization and Structural Adjustment Policies in Zimbabwe and other African countries, framing urban agriculture as a critical coping mechanism for the urban poor against food poverty.

Sherine Brown-Fraser, I.T. Forrester, Randolph Rowel, A. D. Richardson, Ashley Nicole Spence · Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition · United States

Morgan State University's Nutritional Sciences Program describes the principles and practices used to develop a student-led, community-engaged Community Organic Vegetable Garden in Baltimore, Maryland. Garden participation increased four-fold, a variety of crops were grown, and agricultural knowledge increased, alongside improved landscaping and social interaction; a survey found the garden positively influenced participants' fruit and vegetable consumption, physical activity, and environmental awareness.

Yang Feng-x · · China

A field investigation with detailed records examined the safety of park green spaces in major parks and community gardens in Shenzhen and Hong Kong, China. Measured against a "people-oriented" guiding principle and a "select the auspicious, avoid the inauspicious" principle, the study identifies several safety hazards and unreasonable plant arrangements present in these park green spaces as irrational, and proposes methods and countermeasures to address them.

Nicholas Siewell, Madhavappallil Thomas · · United States (California)

A needs-assessment study followed by the establishment of a community garden in a neighborhood in Bakersfield, California (2015), collected survey and focus-group data from residents and garden participants to examine the garden's impact. Findings showed strong support for the garden and reported benefits to participants' physical and mental health, social capacities, and spiritual well-being at both the individual and neighborhood level. The authors present the project as an example of how university-community engagement initiatives can function as a macro-practice intervention framework for students, practitioners, and community leaders.

Nancy Victorin-Vangerud · Digital Commons - Hamline (Hamline University) · United States

This is a course description for a first-year seminar at Hamline University, United States. Drawing on the vision of Will Allen, founder of the Milwaukee urban agriculture organization Growing Power, the course has students explore collaborations across diverse communities, religions and cultures in the Twin Cities, participate in the fall harvest at neighborhood community gardens, and reflect on how food production intersects with social, economic and environmental issues.

Mélissa Jean · Refugee Survey Quarterly · United States

A qualitative study using participant observation and in-depth interviews examined the role of farming activities in the place-making processes of 30 refugees participating in a local urban farming program in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, after resettlement. Seventeen of the participants, from Burundi, Sudan, Bhutan, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Chad and Cuba, took part in in-depth interviews, which showed farming activities embodying both assimilation and resistance post-transition, leading to the conclusion that continued access to agricultural activity carries material and emotional benefits for refugees with agrarian backgrounds.

CBC News · CBC News · Canada

This 2 October 2015 CBC News article reports that Common Roots Urban Farm, in its fourth year on the site of the former Queen Elizabeth High School in Halifax (obtained through a land swap with the former Capital Health Authority), offers 175 community garden plots and a 'nibble garden' open to anyone, and grows food for the Parker Street Food Bank. Facing a funding shortfall as traditional revenue streams dried up, the farm launched a fundraising drive—including a contemplative guided walk and a 1 November harvest party—aiming to raise $8,000 CAD by the end of October.

National Audit Office · National Audit Office (NAO) · United Kingdom

An investigation published by the UK National Audit Office on 29 October 2015. The children's charity Kids Company received at least £46 million of public funding over fifteen years, £28 million of it from the Department for Education. In 2008 it took 20 per cent of the funding available under one programme, and in 2011 it received over twice the amount given to any other grant recipient. Officials raised sustainability concerns in six separate briefings between 2002 and 2015, yet funding continued outside competitive processes; the charity closed insolvent on 5 August 2015 and around 1,900 cases were passed to local authorities.

Georgia Graham · Channel 4 News · United Kingdom

A fact-check on Kids Company, the charity founded in 1996 that operated in London and Bristol. It claimed to reach 36,000 children by 2015 and had received £46 million of public money over fifteen years — £44 million from central government, £28 million of that from the Department for Education. Its 2013 annual income was £23 million, 20 per cent from government and 77 per cent from private donations. The piece notes that government oversight relied on the charity's own self-assessments, with no independent verification of outcomes or beneficiary numbers.

Watanabe Y., Miyamoto M., Amemiya M., Terada T., Yokohari M. · ランドスケープ研究 77(5):713-718 · Japan

Taking the 'Jiyu Hiroba' community garden established under Kashiwa City's Kashiniwa program as a case study, the paper analyzes how the publicness of a community garden is generated and transformed, drawing on resident-drawn site plans, annual management reports, and interviews with neighborhood-association members.

Bishop P. · Journal of European Studies (SAGE) · Germany

A scholarly review of Henderson's study of Ernst May and the New Frankfurt initiative, critically assessing Weimar modernist social housing, garden and green-space programs, and Existenzminimum dwelling within their historical significance and limitations.

Algert S. J., Baameur A., Renvall M. J. · Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics 114(7):1072-1076 · United States

Survey of 83 San Jose community gardeners measuring yields. Plots produced 0.75 lb vegetables per square foot and saved about $435 per season, demonstrating gardens' contribution to urban food affordability.