Grow a Garden . . . Grow a Community

Pamela Harwood

This Community Garden features Pavilions and Nature Play Pockets designed as useful spaces to address food insecurity in a USDA-designated food desert, cultivate community interaction and social activity, and provide learning opportunities for students, library patrons, and families. Our design approach was community wide, as students worked with non-profit organizations, schools, community members, and neighborhood associations to ‘grow a garden and grow a community.’ A trio of pavilions are built around the existing Community Garden on the site of an abandoned high school athletic field, now owned and cared for by the public library, our community partner. The Gardeners’ Pavilionprovides shade, seating, tool storage, accessible garden beds, and a sand and water Nature Play Pocket. A second pavilion houses a Community Marketfor the growers and a learning wall and alcove for Great Achievers, the after-school program for at-risk children from the adjacent school. A small outdoor Community Kitchenand food preparation/demonstration area for nutritional education and programming is the third pavilion students designed and built. Two Nature Play Pockets, a STEM teaching and learning area to the north of the first pavilion, and another hill slide tunnel nature-based play area to the south of the Market Pavilion, complete this project.

The impact of this community built project has been great, as is evidenced by the weekly neighborhood gatherings for Sunday meals, over 300 people at the spring Pies for Peaceevent, the large turnout of makers, artisans, and community at the Makers Market, the library patrons and families at the Scarecrow Festival, and the participation of Teen Works, Great Achievers, Wee Walkers preschool program and Southview's elementary students using the Educational Pavilion. The people in this community have worked with our students to create a beloved place in this neighborhood that speaks to the creative energies of all.

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