President's Message, April 2024
Mary Ann Rigas, MD, FAAP
Hello fellow PA AAP members!
It has been almost two years since I wrote my first PA AAP President’s letter and shared with you my excitement about our fledgling Potter County Community Garden. As I near the end of my presidential term, we enter our third gardening season, and I would like to share with you some of the lessons we have learned and perhaps inspire you to consider joining or starting your own community garden.
Our journey started with an AAP Community Access to Child Health (CATCH) grant project on food insecurity that led me to our local food pantries. I was saddened by the lack of healthy food choices available to families at the pantries and was extremely fortunate to find a like-minded group of local government, professional, and community members who shared my passion to create a community garden. With the help of a willing funder (UPMC Health Plan), we formed a planning committee and formulated our mission: 1) to empower our community to plant, grow, and harvest our own produce, 2) to provide education on the value and process of gardening, 3) to promote community interaction and unity, and 4) to offer solutions to food insecurity.
Community gardens have the potential to benefit individuals, families, and communities in many ways. They improve the health of gardeners, their families, and members of the community by increasing the variety, quantity, and quality of fresh fruits and veggies they consume. In addition, gardening involves physical activity and provides time in nature with plants, birds, and butterflies. Gardeners learn about water conservation, water quality preservation, environmental stewardship, and sustainable land use. Perhaps most importantly, community gardens create a multitude of opportunities for people to work together and learn from each other, leading to neighborhood renewal and beautification. (1)
Community gardens can exist in many different formats, including plot gardens, cooperative gardens, youth gardens, entrepreneurial market gardens, and therapeutic gardens. Likewise, they can be located in a variety of settings, such as schools, parks, housing projects, places of worship, vacant lots, and private properties.
Our garden is situated right in the center of town, making it walkable for many families. Since its inception two years ago, it has grown from twenty-four to thirty-two raised beds, four of which are elevated/disability beds. We now have more interested gardeners than plots and have prioritized individuals or groups new to gardening and people who are unable to garden at home. We have a 50/50 mix of veteran and new gardeners, which promotes an excellent mentorship scenario. Our local Spudgrowers Future Farmers of America youth have started 228 plants from seed in their greenhouse, including tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, broccoli, spinach, and kale. They will deliver these to gardeners at our upcoming Opening Day on April 20. Penn State Extension Master Gardeners will be on site on Opening Day to guide new gardeners in adding soil amendments to their beds and planting cold hardy plants and seeds. The Master Gardeners will also hold three gardening workshops over the course of the spring and summer that are open to all gardeners in the community.
Our garden now boasts an on-site produce shed where community gardeners and other local gardeners can place their extra harvest. It is available for free on a first-come, first-serve basis along with recipes for creating healthy and delicious meals. It is so exciting to see how quickly the produce disappears, usually within minutes to an hour! In addition, we deliver freshly harvested produce to our local food pantry weekly during the growing season.
As a new gardener, I made my share of mistakes during the first two years, but I am proud to say that I now know how to cage and trim my tomato plants to avoid overgrowth and to thin my carrots so that they have room to grow. What I didn’t expect and was delighted to find is that I love my time in the garden, whether I am watering, weeding, harvesting, learning from and sharing tips with other gardeners, or making my weekly trip to the food pantry to drop off produce and recipes.
If you feel inspired, please see the one-pager on how to start a a community garden listed below in this newsletter. In addition, I would love to chat with other gardeners or aspiring gardeners about your experiences, ideas, and questions. Feel free to reach out by email at rigasm@upmc.edu to connect!
Sincerely,
It has been almost two years since I wrote my first PA AAP President’s letter and shared with you my excitement about our fledgling Potter County Community Garden. As I near the end of my presidential term, we enter our third gardening season, and I would like to share with you some of the lessons we have learned and perhaps inspire you to consider joining or starting your own community garden.
Our journey started with an AAP Community Access to Child Health (CATCH) grant project on food insecurity that led me to our local food pantries. I was saddened by the lack of healthy food choices available to families at the pantries and was extremely fortunate to find a like-minded group of local government, professional, and community members who shared my passion to create a community garden. With the help of a willing funder (UPMC Health Plan), we formed a planning committee and formulated our mission: 1) to empower our community to plant, grow, and harvest our own produce, 2) to provide education on the value and process of gardening, 3) to promote community interaction and unity, and 4) to offer solutions to food insecurity.
Community gardens have the potential to benefit individuals, families, and communities in many ways. They improve the health of gardeners, their families, and members of the community by increasing the variety, quantity, and quality of fresh fruits and veggies they consume. In addition, gardening involves physical activity and provides time in nature with plants, birds, and butterflies. Gardeners learn about water conservation, water quality preservation, environmental stewardship, and sustainable land use. Perhaps most importantly, community gardens create a multitude of opportunities for people to work together and learn from each other, leading to neighborhood renewal and beautification. (1)
Community gardens can exist in many different formats, including plot gardens, cooperative gardens, youth gardens, entrepreneurial market gardens, and therapeutic gardens. Likewise, they can be located in a variety of settings, such as schools, parks, housing projects, places of worship, vacant lots, and private properties.
Our garden is situated right in the center of town, making it walkable for many families. Since its inception two years ago, it has grown from twenty-four to thirty-two raised beds, four of which are elevated/disability beds. We now have more interested gardeners than plots and have prioritized individuals or groups new to gardening and people who are unable to garden at home. We have a 50/50 mix of veteran and new gardeners, which promotes an excellent mentorship scenario. Our local Spudgrowers Future Farmers of America youth have started 228 plants from seed in their greenhouse, including tomatoes, peppers, lettuce, broccoli, spinach, and kale. They will deliver these to gardeners at our upcoming Opening Day on April 20. Penn State Extension Master Gardeners will be on site on Opening Day to guide new gardeners in adding soil amendments to their beds and planting cold hardy plants and seeds. The Master Gardeners will also hold three gardening workshops over the course of the spring and summer that are open to all gardeners in the community.
Our garden now boasts an on-site produce shed where community gardeners and other local gardeners can place their extra harvest. It is available for free on a first-come, first-serve basis along with recipes for creating healthy and delicious meals. It is so exciting to see how quickly the produce disappears, usually within minutes to an hour! In addition, we deliver freshly harvested produce to our local food pantry weekly during the growing season.
As a new gardener, I made my share of mistakes during the first two years, but I am proud to say that I now know how to cage and trim my tomato plants to avoid overgrowth and to thin my carrots so that they have room to grow. What I didn’t expect and was delighted to find is that I love my time in the garden, whether I am watering, weeding, harvesting, learning from and sharing tips with other gardeners, or making my weekly trip to the food pantry to drop off produce and recipes.
If you feel inspired, please see the one-pager on how to start a a community garden listed below in this newsletter. In addition, I would love to chat with other gardeners or aspiring gardeners about your experiences, ideas, and questions. Feel free to reach out by email at rigasm@upmc.edu to connect!
Sincerely,