The Healthy Life Community Garden (HLGC) was established in 2012 as one of many projects to support an educational initiative for a blighted neighborhood.  The garden contains 21 raised beds, 6000 square feet of open gardens, fruit trees and a welcoming community area.  HLGC serves as a focal point for Extension programing and provides a safe location for children’s activities.  The increased traffic at HLCG helped focus attention on the historic Rosenwald School located next to the garden.  This attention resulted in an innovative community development plan to make improvements to the Rosenwald School, Fairmont Homes and the surrounding community.

Introduction

Griffin in Spalding County faces many challenges. Poverty rates in the county average 27% with many areas exceeding this rate. The countywide crime rate is in the top 3% of the state. Much of the city of Griffin lies within an identified USDA food desert.

The Fairmont Community, once a proud middle class African American community on the north side of Griffin faces these challenges. Residents, especially public housing residents, lack the space necessary to grow gardens. They are generations removed from subsistence gardening and therefore lack general knowledge, experience and confidence in growing and cooking fresh vegetables. Many survive on fixed incomes therefore unable to invest in gardening inputs. Some suffer from health conditions which exercise can improve. The social aspects of community gardening can greatly improve the quality of life as well.

Materials and Methods

The Healthy Life Community Garden (HLCG) has provided a unique opportunity to extend Extension services to new clientele. It was created to help the community grow fresh produce, raise beautiful flowers, and cultivate healthy, caring neighborhoods. UGA Extension in Spalding Country, with the help of many partners, provides leadership and Extension programming to develop and sustain the gardeners and the garden. The Griffin Housing Authority has provided funding to support a part-time (19 hours/week) program assistant.

Results

HLCG now contains 21 raised beds, 6000 sq ft traditional garden, a growing number of fruit and berry plantings, 17 gardeners, 2 trained Master Gardener Extension Volunteers and many community volunteers. The space is growing food, building trust and relationships across cultural lines. Griffin Housing Authority has provided $61,500 in garden support funding since FY 2012. Donations and grants total $1,800. UGA Extension training provides gardeners with current cultural practices. Staff, gardeners and volunteers accomplish tasks together working to culture the garden, but more importantly to culture trust and build relationships.

The garden has become the spark that has ignited other projects that will play important roles in the revitalization of the neighborhood. HLCG helped focus attention on the historic Rosenwald School in Griffin and catalyzed the creation of a steering committee for community development. The committee invited the Center of Community Design and Preservation (CCDP) of the UGA College of Environment and Design to hold a charrette (collaborative effort to create design solutions) in the Fairmont community. The resulting design plans will be used to solicit support and seek funding for Fairmont Community revitalization.

The Rosenwald School and experiences of community members have drawn the interest of the oral history and media archivists at the Richard B. Russell Library for Political Research and Studies at UGA. The collaboration will involve gardeners, community organizations and faculty to create professional, audio-only oral histories of Fairmont residents. Their stories will focus on the community and their experiences during integration.

Lessons to Learn

• Growing food is the easy part, establishing trust takes time.
• Insure a strong planning team with broad community representation.
• Identify resources and needs.
• Have a plan in place before gardening season, allow 6-12 months for plan development.
• Utilize the knowledge and influence of partners and the community served.
• Maintain an Advisory Board which includes members of the community served to provide input, support, goal setting and communication.
• Have a budget and understand the funding source(s) commitment to a long term project.
• Be creative in gardener recruitment.
• Create a gardener commitment form which includes garden rules. Keep the rules simple but fair to all involved and enforce them.
• Avoid becoming the community gardener.
• Include activities to demonstrate harvest, handling, preparing and cooking fresh vegetables.
• Encourage and schedule regular social activities to boost recruitment.
• Engage community youth in regular gardening, educational and fun activities.
• Make the garden as easy to get to and in to as possible.
• Utilize hands on trainings and garden work days to teach as opposed to formal sessions.
• Get a restroom as gardening stops with a full bladder and youth can’t wait.

Collaborators

• City of Griffin Water Department and Storm-Water Department
• Educational Prosperity Initiative
• Griffin Branch of the NAACP
• Griffin Housing Authority
• Griffin Spalding County School System
• Griffin-Spalding Chamber of Commerce
• Griffin-Spalding Chamber of Commerce
• Kiwanis of Griffin
• Residents of The Fairmont Community
• Southern Crescent Technical College
• Spalding Collaborative
• Spalding County Parks and Recreation, County Public Works, Water Department
• Spalding Regional Hospital
• UGA Center for Urban Agriculture
• UGA Cooperative Extension
• UGA Faculty