2022/12/13 by Dorceta E. Taylor, Ki’Amber Thompson, Dominique Abednour-Brown +4
Agricultural and Biological Sciences · Environmental Science · Medicine · #Census #Coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) #Demography #Disease #Economic growth #Economics #Ethnic group #Gender studies #Geography #Medicine #Organic Food and Agriculture #Pandemic #Population #Poverty #Race (biology) #Socioeconomics #Sociology #Urban Agriculture and Sustainability #Urban Green Space and Health
paper · doi:10.1177/00027642221142204
openalex publication_date 2022/12/13 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/25
Community gardens are more popular than ever, yet we know little about how leadership structure and neighborhood characteristics relate to programming. Hence, this paper analyzes how the racial/ethnic backgrounds of the community garden leaders are related to the activities the garden undertakes. What types of initiatives do gardens undertake to reduce food insecurity? The paper analyzes how the location of the garden impacts what it does. The article presents novel findings on the impact of leadership and neighborhood characteristics on community garden operations and outcomes. Hence, the essay examines how the race/ethnicity of garden managers and their sex and neighborhood characteristics, such as poverty rate, household income, and racial composition, are related to garden initiatives. Finally, the paper examines how community gardens responded to increased demands for food and services during the Coronavirus Disease 2019 pandemic. We studied 53 community gardens in Michigan from the summer 2020 through the winter 2021. Whites manage 66% (35) of the gardens, while People of Color manage 34% (18). Roughly half of the gardens are managed by males and the remainder by females. The gardens, which lack paid staff, rely heavily on volunteers. Almost 53% of the gardens are in low-income census tracts (with median income of 40,000 or less). During the pandemic, 31% of the gardens reduced their staff, 51.4% had fewer volunteers than in pre-pandemic times, and 51.9% had increased amounts of people seeking food.