Organic Gardening and Community Health

Collective Roots develops and promotes organic gardens that become gathering points of information, insights, and observations on the health situation of students and community members, and our environment.

Collective Roots gardens and programs provide opportunities to explore social and environmental justice issues that impact the health of the community. We accomplish this through hands on or “project based learning.”

Student and participants in Collective Roots programs are provided with galvanizing experiences that foster individuals who become better prepared to advocate on health issues related to the food system and the environment.

Association Between Poverty and Environmental Health Risks
Poor children often live in communities that are close to industrial areas and high density traffic corridors. Low income housing can often contain peeling paint that contains lead. Industrial sources of lead such as smelters are often sited in these communities (Bullard, R.D. and Wright, B, 1993). High levels of soil contamination from historical use of lead in gasoline may also be found in these communities. Old furnishings, especially carpets, may contain bacteria and other allergens which act as large reservoirs of lead and concentrate, pesticides and other toxic substances tracked in on shoes (Roberts, J.W. and P. Dickey, 1995).

In addition, the nutritional status of many children in poverty is such that they may be lacking in the essential nutrients that may have a protective role against exposure to environmental contaminants (Goyer, R.A., 1997, Chaudhuri, 1998). Poor parents tend to have less political or economic power and therefore are less able to change their environment. Parents may also have less education and therefore reduced access to information on the health impacts of environmental contaminants and ways to prevent exposure. The environment as a determinant of health is largely ignored in most educational settings, and also in public policy. Organic gardens provide a basis for engaging students on many of these issues.

Working Within a Community Health Promotion Framework
The determinants of health can be addressed at different levels of society using various strategies to improve community and environmental health. In environmental health promotion one must keep abreast of scientific advances in the field such as environmental standard setting, the health impacts of environmental contaminants, as well as other community issues, policy initiatives, and populaton health strategies. Working within a health promotion framework, a number of tools are available…these include: education, community development, community based action research, advocacy, monitoring, and evaluation. All of these tools can be utilized within garden based learning programs. Organic gardens and gardening may be viewed as frameworks for teaching environmental health—vehicles for strengthening the community, healthy public policy, creating healthier environments, developing cutting edge educational strategies, and reorienting health promotion to occur from within the educational system, literally working from the ground up (starting in Pre-School all the way through College).

What are the consequences of our eating and lifestyle choices?
Collective Roots is committed to make lasting changes in behavior — breaking old habits by creating innovative and fun programs in garden based settings that get to the heart of the issues. Collective Roots programs literally and figuratively help students to “think out of the box,” creating hands on experiences for learning healthy habits. Our curriculum teaches the full impact of food choices…assisting students to take personal steps toward building healthy bodies and restoring the earth.

Collective Roots helps young minds grow and develop a connection between what they eat and how they feel, and connecting personal well-being to community and environmental health. Collective Roots has changed the lives of thousands of children and adults through garden based learning programs. These programs provide experiences that foster lasting habits that improve health and well-being. Garden based learning also promotes educational advancement through project based learning and science education that is literally out of the box. Organic gardens provide ideal settings for bringing school wellness policies to life, providing dynamic opportunities for wellness education, engaging students and families in health activities in ways that foster healthy new habits that also happen to be fun and integrated into the fabric of community life.

The Partnership Way
Collective Roots accomplishes its work through extensive collaboration with other nonprofits to leverage our work. Cultivating a connection between our food and the earth through organic gardening is an important approach to understanding what goes into our food, and how we can improve human as well as environmental health. Seeing these inter-relationships is facilitated through engaging students with a wide variety of organizations and institutions that are partners in health promotion and learning that is grounded in the community and the environment. Organic gardens provide fertile ground for creating "global gardens," places where connect the big dots of education, environment, and health.