Community gardening during times of crisis: Recommendations for community-engaged dialogue, research, and praxis

Abstract

Using ongoing reflections from our recent work as members of a community gardening initiative, we outline relevant priorities for researchers, policymakers, and community practitioners to examine the role of community gardens in addressing the effects of COVID-19 on the lives of intersectionally diverse growers. To understand how COVID-JAFSCD Responds to the COVID-19 Pandemic

A landscape architect preferences on border elements at green open spaces during Covid-19 pandemic

“…Meanwhile, softscape includes elements of plants, air, and soil (Tarakçı Eren, Düzenli, and Alpak 2018;Setyabudi, Hastutiningtyas, and Olo 2017;Simond and Starke 2006). The choice of materials and elements also looks at several factors that make it possible to obtain, price, material strength (durable), and produce aesthetic value (Nirmalasari, Lubis, and Kusuma 2017). Preference is seen in the condition of existing parks and parks that will be built in the future.…”

“…In some countries, there are special protocols to prevent the transmission of Covid-19 in community parks. North Carolina State University formulated a protocol in the form of opening access to information for park users, especially regarding the prevention of covid-19 transmission, limiting the number of visitors to a maximum of 10 people per hour of visit, and users must maintain a minimum distance of 6 feet or 2 meters from other users (North Carolina State University 2020; Mejia et al 2020). Meanwhile, the City of Durham government provides the following rules: maintain a distance of 2 meters (6 feet) from other people, limit the number of people in or around the park.…”

Eating inequity: The injustice that brings us our food

“…Food continues to be essential to social justice movements today (Simley, 2017). The COVID-19 pandemic has also brought food to the forefront of personal and political discourses, with strong advocacy (often met with political resistance) to improve food security (Hake et al, 2020), the working conditions and wages of essential food works (Wozniacka, 2020), food system resilience through localization and decentralization (Lal, 2020;Mejia et al, 2020), and much more.…”

“…Our response, though, has been mixed. While local growers, fishers, and communities work to decentralize, find new markets, and distribute much-needed resources, our administration works to deregulate the industry and marginalize many food workers, further entrenching an already-unjust food system (Grillo, 2020;Held, 2020;Jordan, 2020;Mejia et al, 2020;Sethi, 2020;Wozniacka, 2020). In a moment of crisis, there may be a moment for food system change.…”

Reflections on the North Central Community Gardens Branch Out Project

“…The project's purpose was to expand the NCCG, which already consisted of three open-access locations, onto additional schoolyard and backyard land. Despite-or perhaps, in some ways, because of (Mejia et al, 2020)-the COVID-19 pandemic, the first season of BOP resulted in the construction of eight new gardens. However, this project is not simply about building gardens, nor is it suggesting that the solution to poverty, inadequate food access, and insufficient public resources is that the people who suffer most from these injustices must, as the saying goes, pull themselves up by their bootstraps.…”