Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
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1540 results(60 / 62)
Growing Healthy Children: Can Gardening Improve Fruit and Vegetable Attitudes in Minority Children?
2004Geralyn Nolan, Jayne M. Zajicek · HortScience · United States
This research investigated whether gardening supplemented with nutritional curriculum could improve fruit and vegetable attitudes in minority children in Texas elementary schools. Children completed pre- and post-tests evaluating attitudes, snack preferences, and nutritional knowledge. Statistically significant positive differences were found in all three variables after the gardening and nutritional instruction.
Food educationHealthCommunityDesigning a Children's Garden for Experiential Learning in the South Carolina Botanical Garden
2004Robert F. Polomski, Carri Carver Wallace, Mary Haque, Lisa K. Wagner, James E. Arnold, Amy D. Craddock, Christian Maloney Cicimurri, Lisa D. Chancellor · HortScience · United States (South Carolina)
An interdisciplinary team designed a 2.5-acre Children's Garden for experiential learning at the South Carolina Botanical Garden. The plans include 13 outdoor theme gardens, such as a "Dinosaur Dig" and a "Food for Thought Garden." A design class of 15 students contributed 2,000 hours to the project, producing 30 drawing boards of research, analysis, and design proposals presented in Fall 2003.
Food educationCommunityAgricultura urbana e segurança alimentar em Belo Horizonte: cultivando uma cidade sustentável
2004Daniela Adil Oliveira de Almeida · Organic Eprints (International Centre for Research in Organic Food Systems, and Research Institute of Organic Agriculture) · Brazil (Belo Horizonte)
This article focuses on the "Project for Training Local Development Agents in Food and Nutritional Security and Urban Agriculture," which began in 2003 in Belo Horizonte, Brazil.
Food educationFood sovereignty & justiceCommunityThe Community Household: The Foundation of Everyday Resistance
2004Roberta M. Feldman, Susan Stall · Cambridge University Press eBooks · United States
This paper explores the concept of the community household through the case of Mrs. Mary Rias, a resident activist at Wentworth Gardens. Mrs. Rias, who coordinated and worked in a community garden for over a decade, is depicted as extending her caretaking and nurturing roles from her home into the community, often meeting neighbors' needs within her residence. This case illustrates mutual support and family-like relationships within the community.
CommunityWelfareWhat's for dinner?Organizing around food access issues in Los Angeles.
2004Prebus, Olivia · Occidental College Scholar (Occidental College) · United States (Los Angeles)
This work addresses the gross inequity of food access in low-income neighborhoods of Los Angeles, such as MacArthur Park, where grocery stores are scarce. The author's internship at the Center for Food and Justice involved projects like a Community Food Assessment and organizing a community garden, all focused on empowering communities to tackle complex food access issues. The abstract highlights the severe problem of limited healthy food options leading to simultaneous obesity and malnutrition.
Equity & displacementCommunityFood educationHealthWelfareCommunity Gardens: Lessons Learned From California Healthy Cities and Communities
2003Joan M. Twiss, Joy Dickinson, Shirley Duma, Tanya Kleinman, Heather Paulsen, Liz Rilveria · American Journal of Public Health · United States (California)
Community gardens enhance nutrition, physical activity, and social capital, promoting public health and quality of life. The California Healthy Cities and Communities (CHCC) program funded successful community gardens in several cities, which incorporated local leadership, volunteers, and skill-building. These initiatives led to policies for land and water use, improved produce access, and strengthened community building skills.
CommunityHealthFood educationPolicyCommunity Gardens and Politics of Scale in New York City
2003Christopher M. Smith, Hilda E. Kurtz · Geographical Review · United States (New York City)
New York City community gardens have faced political contestation for thirty years, notably in 1999 when 114 gardens were slated for public auction and redevelopment. This article examines the controversy as a politics of scale, where garden advocates expanded the dispute beyond individual gardens and the city. The analysis highlights the significance of scale politics for grassroots organizations within a market-centric, neoliberal economic framework.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceCommunity Supported Agriculture on the Central Coast: The CSA Grower Experience
2003Jan Perez · eScholarship (California Digital Library) · United States (California)
This 2003 research brief investigated the experiences of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) growers on the central coast of California. The study examined their motivations, economic viability, challenges, and issues related to equal access to their products. The research brief indicates that challenges and issues of equal access are present in CSA projects.
Equity & displacementCSA & TeikeiEconomicsCommunityThe Story of the Queen Anne Memorial Garden: Resisting a Dominant Cultural Narrative
2003Troy D. Glover · Journal of Leisure Research · United States
This narrative inquiry explored how 14 participants in the Queen Anne Memorial Garden, a community garden built to combat urban decline, collectively reconfigured events into a “success story.” The aggregated community narrative illustrates how a collective leisure pursuit can be a grassroots effort to address urban decline and reshape collective identity.
CommunityPolicyHealthLesson study : the school garden as an integrating context for science and language learning
2003Karen L. Nordstrom · Digital Commons - CSUMB (California State University, Monterey Bay) · United States
This research investigated the impact of collaborative, reflective teaching practice on teacher professional development in science education. The MBSP/LASERS Summer School Academy implemented lesson study, integrating hands-on, inquiry-based learning and English language acquisition within the context of a school garden. Qualitative data analyses identified emergent themes from teacher and student interviews, focus groups, and written reflection, measuring the effectiveness of lesson study on teacher professional development and student perceptions of garden-based learning.
Food educationCommunity"Community Interested" Individuals
2003Kluthe, Ryan · Occidental College Scholar (Occidental College) · United States
This paper presents observations of 13 teens in the Youth Leadership Council of Highland Park, United States, who dedicated hundreds of hours to community projects without individual incentive. These observations contradict Mancur Olsen's theory that groups only organize under coercion or special devices, suggesting the existence of "community interested" individuals.
CommunityWelfareNew York's Community Gardens: Follow-Up
2003Cindy Rosenthal · TDR/The Drama Review · United States (New York City)
This abstract provides publication details for an article titled "New York's Community Gardens: Follow-Up" by Cindy Rosenthal, published in TDR/The Drama Review in 2003. The content of the article itself is not provided in the abstract, only its bibliographic information.
CommunityContemporary streamkeepers : a comparison of two urban horticultural restoration programs
2003Charles Rowley · eScholarship (California Digital Library) · United States (California)
This paper compared the successes and failures of two urban creek restoration programs in California: Temescal Creek (initiated nearly 30 years ago) and White Oak Creek (completed about four years ago). Based on the author's success criteria, the more recent White Oak Creek program achieved significant success, while the earlier Temescal Creek restoration did not reach generally acceptable success levels. This difference is attributed to changes in management and scientific practice over 30 years, including substantial changes in the legal basis for restoration, improved monitoring requirements, and the critical role of properly engineered low flow distribution structures.
Limited or null effectCommunityBiodiversityPolicyBuilding Houses, Building Lives
2003Lorie Hammond · Mind Culture and Activity · United States (California)
This article uses a narrative format to describe situations in which Mienh immigrant families from a Southeast Asian hill tribe adapt to technological and cultural change within a California elementary school sponsoring a family literacy, school-community garden, and house building project. It argues that adjustments can be creative and empowering if schools incorporate community "funds of knowledge" into their instructional plan. Projects such as gardening and house building provide rich contexts for intercultural dialogues.
CommunityFood educationWelfareConflicting Rights to the City in New York's Community Gardens
2002Lynn A. Staeheli, Don Mitchell, Kristina Gibson · GeoJournal · USA (New York City)
Analyzes the Giuliani administration's 1998–1999 policy of transferring community gardens to housing development and auctioning 100+ gardens, exposing how a city 'greening then privatizing' policy reversed itself and treated public gardens as disposable exchange-value assets.
PolicyCommunityEconomicsIncommensurability, Land Use, and the Right to Space: Community Gardens in New York City1
2002Karen Schmelzkopf · Urban Geography · United States (New York City)
This study examined the conflict over community gardens in New York City, arguing that it was a struggle concerning the right to space. The city, operating from an entrepreneurial governance perspective, claimed that the gardens represented a loss of exchange value and potential housing. The city used market economy rhetoric to dismiss incommensurable use values, thereby restricting rights to the city within a demonstration of power and "reason."
Governance failureCommunityPolicyEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceSocial Inclusion in a Midwest Local Food System Project
2002C. Clare Hinrichs, Kathy S. Kremer · Journal of Poverty · United States
This 1997 case study examined a Midwest community supported agriculture (CSA) project that aimed to increase low-income participation through financial subsidies, using a telephone survey of 41 member-households. The study found that while subsidized households had lower incomes, the overall CSA sample was more advantaged in income, occupation, and education compared to local populations. The project inadvertently served the "advantaged" poor, indicating that social inclusion efforts in local food systems may not effectively reach the most vulnerable.
Equity & displacementCSA & TeikeiCommunityWelfareEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceThe common green/common ground Performance Project: The Personal, the Political, the Gardens, and NYU
2002Cindy Rosenthal · TDR/The Drama Review · United States (New York City)
In New York City, a group of NYU students and local community activists protested and performed against landlords and the city bulldozing community gardens. Their performance piece documented the transformation of garbage-strewn lots into lush, vital community havens and cried out against their destruction. This highlights a conflict over urban garden governance.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyFood sovereignty & justiceUsing Agriculture as the Foundation for an Extension Nutrition Education Program
2002L. Hughes · Journal of Extension · United States
Rutgers Cooperative Extension developed "From Our Farms," a nutrition and agriculture education program for children aged 3-8 in the United States. This initiative promotes improved nutrition and consumption of locally grown foods through family-based activities offered via local libraries.
CSA & TeikeiFood educationCommunityCommunity Supported Agriculture (CSA): Building Community Among Farmers and Non-Farmers
2002Jeff Sharp, Eric Imerman, Greg Peters · Journal of Extension · United States
This qualitative study of a Midwestern Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program explored how CSA builds connections between farmers and non-farmers. The findings indicate that CSA successfully met participant goals while fostering community among these groups. The study suggests that CSA can be promoted at the rural-urban interface to strengthen community and support local agriculture.
CSA & TeikeiCommunityUrban–rural linkageLa participation, dans quel sens? L'exemple des organisations communautaires et de l'agriculture urbaine dans les villes de Mexico et de Cuernavaca
2002Manon Boulianne · Anthropologica · Mexico
A study on community organizations and urban agriculture in Mexico City and Cuernavaca suggests that the very meaning of participation becomes an issue for community organizations engaged in popular entrepreneurship development programs. It illustrates how the structuring effects of market production activities lead to a renegotiation of the meaning attributed to participation among the individuals and groups concerned.
Governance failureCommunityEconomicsPolicyCitywide System for Environmental Self-help and the Landscape Architect Karl Linn
2002Feng We · · United States
This article details the landscape philosophy of Karl Linn, a landscape architect, through his project practices. It discusses the inevitability and importance of establishing a citywide system for environmental self-help, which is common in US community gardens.
CommunityDIYPeople, Land and Sustainability: Community Gardens and the Social Dimension of Sustainable Development
2001John Ferris, Carol Norman, Joe Sempik · Social Policy and Administration · USA
This article reports on research and experience from the USA regarding community gardens and their role in the social dimension of sustainable development. It explores how the use of urban green spaces for gardens links to health, education, community development, and food security. The article concludes that using urban open spaces for parks and gardens is closely associated with environmental justice and equity.
CommunityHealthFood educationFood sovereignty & justiceWelfareBridging the Gap: Connecting School and Community with Service Learning
2001Sarah Edwards · The English Journal · United States
This article describes how the author's eighth-grade language arts inquiry-based instruction evolved into student-based community learning. Students brought the community to school with an art exhibit on tolerance, volunteered at a nearby elementary school, created community gardens to fulfill a neighborhood need, and established a new desert habitat community park, connecting the school and neighborhood.
CommunityFood educationSchool Gardens: Raising Environmental Awareness in Children.
2001Shira Brynjegard · Dominican Scholar (Dominican University of California) · United States
This study explored the reasons for gardens and natural spaces on school campuses and their effects on students. Blending case studies, observational data, and personal experience, it discussed the impacts of a garden on participating students, using the balance of administrative, teacher, parent, and student involvement to determine lasting effects on student attitudes toward environmental concerns. Evidence of increased environmental awareness in students was discussed.
Food educationCommunity