Growing Gardens and Nurturing Community in the Urban Environment

The following literature will analyze how urban agriculture (UA), and more specifically community gardens, address the rising global pressures on urban areas by rebuilding local networks. First, it will present community gardening as a solution to the global food crisis. Second, five case studies will compare cities’ community garden projects throughout the world: Accra, Shanghai, St. Petersburg, Havana, and Philadelphia. The next section will study the demographics of community gardeners, especially its impacts on marginalized members of society: children, women, elderly, immigrants and ethnic minorities, and physical and mentally challenged. And finally, the issues of city planning and green design will highlight community gardens’ role in the creation of sustainable and engaged, civic communities. The cookbook anthology that follows will examine these research conclusions, specifically UA’s ability to rebuild local networks. Through histories, community stories, and gathered soup recipes, it will detail the programs of Southside Community Land Trust in Providence, Rhode Island: City Farm, Education: After-school, Urban Edge Farm, and Somerset Community Garden. Conversations with the staff will then study the avenues for social change through UA and the need for civic leadership