Evaluate How Dietary Influences Are Affected By Community Gardens?

‘Community gardens are open spaces managed and operated by members of the local community for a variety of purposes’ (Holland, 2004). Community gardens have become recently more popular, particularly in urban areas, bringing together members of a community to cultivate land. Community gardens vary enormously in what they offer (Ferris et al, 2001). There are multiple benefits of these gardens, such as; increased community cohesion, health and social, opportunity for physical activity, opportunities for disadvantaged people, less waste, increased consumption of fruit and vegetables, more compositing, less pollution, etc, (Sands, 2006). There are multiple resources of relevant and supporting literature, globally, nationally and locally on recent projects and research.

Findings reveal that few well-designed research studies have been completed to evaluate how dietary influences are affected by community gardens (McCormack et al, 2010). However, using qualitative semi-structured interviews in a research project in Melbourne, the results revealed multiple health benefits, such as improved mental health, a sense of worth and involvement, social support, nutritional benefits and increased physical activity, (Kingsley et al, 2009). Alaimo et al (2008) collected data in Michigan, through questionnaires among 766 participants to determine the association between participation in community gardens and fruit and vegetable consumption among adults. Households with a member who participated in a community garden consumed fruit and vegetables 1.4 more times a day than those who did not participate, and were 3.5 times more likely to consume them at least 5 times