In New Haven, Connecticut, community gardens help put food on the table for many families while giving volunteers opportunities to connect. Yale students are often among the volunteers, and some describe it as a life-changing experience.
As the Yale Daily News reported, Rosie Hampson has plenty of experience growing fresh, healthy food. She's helped her family manage a small community garden since childhood.
Her love for nature and homegrown food led her to become the president of her high school's environmental club. There, she encouraged fellow classmates to explore the benefits of gardening and eating local produce.
"Lots of students in an urban environment like New Haven weren't passionate about the environment," Hampson told the newspaper. "They weren't as connected with nature. So, it was really special to see students who haven't had that experience before grow their own food and flowers and get their hands in the dirt."
Hampson's passion for nature inspired her to major in environmental studies at Yale and become the outreach chair for the Yale Student Environmental Coalition. As she expands her horizons, the community garden she tended as a child is flourishing, thanks to Gather New Haven. It's a nonprofit that manages 45 gardens total across the city.
The community needs efforts like this. Zion Jones, the organization's community engagement and development manager, explained that New Haven is a "food desert." That means residents have limited access to affordable, fresh, and nutritious foods.
According to the nonprofit's website, it provides tools and education to families to help them grow their own food in their gardens. Tools include seeds, seedlings, and most importantly, community.
Gather New Haven hosts free social gatherings that raise awareness about the importance of fresh food. It also raises money for conservation efforts and supplies.
"These community gardens bring together over 800 family members each year to produce an estimated 15,000+ pounds of fresh fruits and vegetables and build community ties," it explained.
Gather New Haven also launched a Farm-Based Wellness Program, which "provides cooking demonstrations, gardening, nutrition education, stress management, and lifestyle intervention practices" for those at risk of diet-related health conditions.
The nonprofit also manages four farms, which produce a bountiful harvest of roughly 8,000 pounds of organic vegetables annually, and six nature preserves.
The Yale Farm is also known as "Old Acre," and the university's sustainable food program manages it. There, students harvest tomatoes, carrots, and leafy greens, which are donated to local organizations that distribute produce to underserved neighborhoods.
Gardening is a great stress reliever for busy students. It's also an opportunity for them to connect with nature and each other, give back, and help Mother Nature thrive.
"Fresh, healthy produce is of course a wonderful product of urban farms," wrote Jeremy Oldfield, the program's farm manager, to the News.
They continued: "Equally important are the intangibles that a farm offers: a space to gather in shared purpose, an opportunity to connect with agricultural processes and tasks, the types of conversations and stories that arise over shared work."