Growing Health: Community, School and Home Gardens

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Growing HealthCommunity, School and Home
Gardens
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Growing Health

• Garden activities positively impact health of
  participants, observers and communities.
• Gardeners and those who hang out in gardens tend
  to eat more fruits and vegetables, but..

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Did you know?

• 4 surprising benefits of gardening
• Improved Life Satisfaction
• University of Texas and Texas AM study of 298
  older adults. Gardeners ranked significantly
  higher in zest for life optimism, overall
  resolution and fortitude.

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Did you know?

• 4 surprising benefits of gardening
• Lower risk of osteoporosis
• University of Arkansas study of 3,310 older women
  found that those engaged in gardening activities
  had lower rates of osteoporosis than the joggers,
  swimmers and participants of aerobics.

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Did you know?

• 4 surprising benefits of gardening
• Lower risk of diabetes
• Obvious contributor fresh produce
• Not so obvious physical activity. Research
  from University of Kansas indicates that active
  gardeners get more than the recommended 150
  minutes of physical activity per week and casual
  gardeners get just slightly less.
• Areas where community and home gardens are common
  have lower incidence of diabetes.

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Did you know?

• 4 surprising benefits of gardening
• Better Sleep
• Mental health benefits of gardening are so strong
  that a medical field called horticultural
  therapy has been developed to help with
  psychiatric disorders.
• Reduces agitation in people with anxiety and
  dementia
• Reduces stress in anyoneless stress better
  sleep!

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Community Gardens

• Began turn of 20th century
• Renaissance during the world wars in response to
  food shortages

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Community Gardens
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Tiger Mountain Foundation
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Tiger Mountain Gardens

• www.tigermountainfoundation.org
• Regular volunteer days 2 x per month.
• All garden days include physical activity,
  nutrition and gardening education, musical
  entertainment, food and opportunity for social
  interaction for all ages.

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School Gardens

• Multiple studies
• Nutrition Education paired with
• Garden activities had more of
• an impact on healthful
• behavior than nutrition
• Interventions alone.

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School Gardens

• Promote healthy eating
• Improve test scores
• Connect children to the environment
• Extend the learning environment

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School Gardens

• Arizona Department of Health Services Guidelines
  for School Gardens
• For schools that want to grow produce in a garden
  on school grounds and serve to students, parents,
  teachers or guests.

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SNAP Gardens
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Resources for Gardening Information

• Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona
• Learn to Grow Your Own Food Classes
• Urban Farm
• Demonstration Gardens

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Resources for Gardening Information

• Maricopa County Cooperative Extension, Urban
  Horticulture
• Resources for community gardens
• Seed and Organic Matter Sources
• Planting guides
• Technical expertise

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Fun and beautiful resource

• Created for NYC schools, but contains great
  lesson plans, how-tos, pictures and videos
• http//growtolearn.org

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Information, Resources and Questions

• Allison Parisi - Giles
• Farmers Market Nutrition Program Manager
• 602-542-0389
• allison.giles_at_azdhs.gov