Food access, food security and community gardens in Rockford, IL

Urban agriculture projects seek to ameliorate issues of food access and food security for people living in areas with low access to fresh foods, including food deserts. Within this discourse, community gardens have been promoted as vehicles to reclaim unused urban space, produce food locally and con...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:Local environment 2018-04, Vol.23 (4), p.414-430
Main Authors: Furness, Walter W., Gallaher, Courtney M.
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Access
Agriculture
Communities
Community
Community development
Community gardens
Disadvantaged
Donations
Food
food access
Food deserts
Food security
Food sources
Food supply
Gardening
Gardens
Gardens & gardening
Group research
Neighborhoods
Residents
Security
Social capital
Urban agriculture
Urban areas
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Summary:Urban agriculture projects seek to ameliorate issues of food access and food security for people living in areas with low access to fresh foods, including food deserts. Within this discourse, community gardens have been promoted as vehicles to reclaim unused urban space, produce food locally and connect populations to their food sources and larger community. A variety of community garden models exist; in the Midwestern city of Rockford, Illinois, many community gardens grow food for donation to food pantries as part of a programme to benefit socioeconomically disadvantaged persons in the city. However, the ability of these gardens to involve neighbourhood participants and provide the social capital-related benefits attributed to community gardens in the literature is uncertain. Here we examine community gardens in Rockford, IL to assess the extent to which they contribute to residents' ability to obtain fresh produce as well as other social benefits. Data for this project come from a combination of interviews with gardeners, focus groups with food pantry users and a survey of pantry users. We find that while non-gardening community members are benefitting from the increased produce that the gardens provide, they are not receiving all of the social and communal benefits associated with actively participating in a garden.
ISSN:1354-9839
1469-6711
DOI:10.1080/13549839.2018.1426561