Help Us Create Five Community Gardens in Baton Rouge — and Grow the Idea Across Louisiana

We Have an Idea. We Need Your Help.

We would like to create five strategically located community gardens throughout Baton Rouge and surrounding East Baton Rouge Parish communities, prioritizing areas where access to fresh, healthy food and community resources is most needed.

But we want these to be more than gardens.

We envision places that can provide fresh food, teach people how to grow food, create paid jobs, bring families and neighbors together, and give communities welcoming green spaces built around something every human being needs:

Food.

And if we can demonstrate that this works in Baton Rouge, we would like to help the idea grow throughout Louisiana.

Food Should Not Have to Be Earned

Why Baton Rouge Needs This

This proposal isn’t based only on an idea we think would be nice to have.

Food insecurity exists here.

Historical parish-level research from Feeding America’s Map the Meal Gap has documented tens of thousands of people in East Baton Rouge Parish living with food insecurity, including thousands of children.

And this challenge extends far beyond Baton Rouge. The newest Map the Meal Gap research shows that communities throughout the South continue to experience some of the country’s highest rates of food insecurity.

Food insecurity does not always mean someone has nothing at all to eat. It can mean not consistently knowing whether there will be enough money for nutritious food after paying rent, utilities, transportation, medicine, childcare, and other necessities.

It can affect children, working families, older adults, people with disabilities, and people whose incomes are actually too high to qualify for some forms of government food assistance.

That’s why we believe Baton Rouge should act.

Five community gardens will not solve food insecurity by themselves.

But they can become one additional resource: providing fresh food while teaching people how to grow it, creating employment opportunities, strengthening community connections, and helping us learn what works.

We aren’t proposing that gardens replace the food system we already have.

We’re proposing that we add another tool to it.

People should be able to receive available food from these community gardens regardless of whether they are able to work in them.

Participation should be voluntary.

Some people may want to work.
Some may want to volunteer.
Some may want to learn.
Some families may want to garden together.
Some people may simply need food.

There should be a place for all of them.

We know that people can be dealing with circumstances other people cannot see. Our goal isn’t to make people prove why they need help.

Our goal is to make help available.

Gardening Is a Skill — So Let’s Teach It

We don’t want to build gardens and assume people already know what to do.

Gardening has to be learned.

For people who want to participate, we would like these gardens to provide hands-on opportunities to learn skills such as preparing soil, planting seeds and seedlings, watering, composting, identifying pests and plant diseases, harvesting, preserving food, and caring for fruit and nut trees.

The gardens can become outdoor classrooms.

Someone might arrive knowing absolutely nothing about growing food and eventually develop the knowledge and confidence to grow food at home, help someone else learn, work in agriculture or landscaping, or simply know that they possess a skill they can use for the rest of their life.

Let’s Create Jobs Too

Community gardens require work.

That means they can also create employment.

Depending on funding and how the program is ultimately structured, paid positions could include garden coordinators, experienced growers and instructors, maintenance workers, planting and harvesting workers, composting and soil-management workers, food-distribution workers, and seasonal positions.

We would also like to explore learn-while-you-work opportunities so someone does not necessarily have to arrive with gardening experience to have an opportunity to earn money.

Employment would be an opportunity — not a requirement for receiving food.

Build Around Louisiana’s Heat

Louisiana’s climate has to be part of the design.

During our hottest months, scheduled outdoor gardening and paid outdoor work should generally take place during safer morning hours and end by approximately 11:00 AM, with flexibility to end earlier when heat conditions become dangerous.

Gardens should include appropriate access to drinking water, shade, cooling areas, rest breaks, accessible seating, and other heat protections.

Cooling equipment, including appropriate outdoor misting fans in rest areas, could be considered where agricultural and safety professionals determine they are suitable.

We should design the program around human beings — not expect human beings to endanger themselves for the program.

Plant Food When We Plant Trees

We also want Baton Rouge — and eventually communities throughout Louisiana — to reconsider something very simple:

When we plant trees on suitable public property, can some of them feed people too?

Where climate, location, safety, maintenance requirements, infrastructure, and environmental conditions make it appropriate, we would like communities to consider planting fruit trees, nut trees, berry-producing plants, and other edible perennial landscaping.

This isn’t an idea without precedent.

Madison, Wisconsin permits approved edible landscapes on city-owned property, including fruit and nut trees and other edible perennial species. Plants established through the program become accessible to the public, and produce harvested from those public-land plantings cannot be sold.

Imagine designated public spaces around Louisiana where someone can safely pick a piece of fruit from a tree without needing money in their pocket.

Community Gardens Can Grow More Than Food

Research and existing programs suggest community gardens can contribute to much more than food production.

Community gardening has been associated with greater social connection, neighborhood involvement, access to healthy food, gardening education, well-being, and community participation.

Madison specifically identifies increased social connectedness and cohesion among the purposes of its community-garden program. Its stated goals also include community engagement, neighborhood development, leadership development, sustainable land stewardship, and youth development and employment.

That’s what makes this idea so exciting.

We aren’t proposing five places that simply grow vegetables.

We want to grow:

Food.
Skills.
Jobs.
Knowledge.
Relationships.
Community.

Other Cities Have Already Shown Us What’s Possible

Seattle’s P-Patch Community Gardening Program began in 1973.

More than 50 years later, the program serves thousands of households through approximately 90 community gardens throughout the city.

In 2022 alone, Seattle reported that its gardeners helped donate more than 44,000 pounds of produce to food banks and meal programs.

Seattle also provides financial assistance and priority placement to help lower-income and historically underserved residents participate.

Madison provides another model. About half of its community gardens are located on city-owned land, and the city coordinates support across multiple departments.

These programs don’t mean Baton Rouge should simply copy another city.

They show us something more important:

This can be done.

Now we can learn from what other communities have already discovered and build something designed specifically for Baton Rouge.

We Are Not Trying to Replace Grocery Stores or Farmers

These gardens are not intended to replace grocery stores, farmers, farmers markets, food businesses, or the people who already help feed our communities.

They are intended to supplement our existing food system.

Five gardens cannot provide everything a household needs, nor should they try.

Instead, they can provide another source of fresh food while creating education, employment, community space, and greater food security.

We would like local farmers, growers, grocery stores, nurseries, food businesses, agricultural workers, neighborhood organizations, nonprofits, and others who may be affected by or interested in this project to have an opportunity to participate in developing it.

There may be possibilities for partnerships, employment, agricultural education, purchasing plants and supplies locally, sponsorships, distribution of excess produce, equipment donations, and ideas we haven’t even considered yet.

Our goal is not to solve one problem by creating another.

If something we propose could create an unintended problem for someone else, we want to hear about it.

Then let’s figure out how to make the idea better.

Where Will the Land Come From?

We don’t have to know the exact location of all five gardens before we begin.

Potential sites might include appropriate city/parish, state, or federal property; voluntarily donated or dedicated private land; or suitable property made available through partnerships with businesses, churches, nonprofits, neighborhood organizations, or other community partners.

But available land alone shouldn’t determine where a garden goes.

We want these gardens where they are needed.

Site selection should consider community need, access to fresh food, transportation and accessibility, water availability, soil and environmental safety, drainage and flooding, surrounding land uses, and whether residents can realistically reach and use the garden.

And we want the people living in these communities involved in those decisions.

Start in Baton Rouge. Grow Across Louisiana.

Our immediate goal is five strategically located community gardens in Baton Rouge and surrounding East Baton Rouge Parish communities.

But we don’t want the idea to stop here.

We would like Baton Rouge to demonstrate a model that other Louisiana communities can adapt to their own needs.

Every community is different. Some may need several gardens. Some may need one. Some small communities may eventually develop another model that works better for them.

The principle is what matters:

Find the need. Build the solution around the people. Learn from it. Improve it. Share what works.

We would also like fruit and nut trees and other appropriate edible landscaping to become part of that larger Louisiana conversation.

Our five Baton Rouge gardens can be the beginning — not the end.

How Could We Pay for It?

We don’t believe one person, one organization, or one level of government should have to build this alone.

Successful community-garden programs have been supported through combinations of public resources, community partnerships, nonprofit organizations, grants, donations, volunteers, and other forms of support.

We would like Baton Rouge to explore a similar shared-investment model.

Possible resources could include city/parish support and appropriate publicly owned land; state and federal grants; workforce-development funding for paid positions and training; partnerships with universities and agricultural programs; nonprofit and philanthropic grants; business sponsorships; donated land, plants, trees, tools, equipment, soil, compost, irrigation materials, and professional services; and community fundraising for specific projects or equipment.

Some people may be able to give money.

Some may have land.

Some may have equipment.

Some may have plants.

Some may have knowledge.

Some may have time.

And government, universities, nonprofits, businesses, farmers, growers, neighborhood organizations, and residents may each be able to contribute a different piece.

We don’t know yet exactly what combination will build these five gardens.

That’s why we want to explore every available resource and partnership before determining what additional funding is needed.

Before asking the community to carry the entire financial burden, we want to identify what land, grants, programs, partnerships, donated resources, and existing public resources are already available.

Then we can determine what is still needed and raise money for specific, transparent purposes.

We don’t need one person to give us everything.
We need enough people and organizations willing to give something.

And together, those pieces may be enough to build something Baton Rouge can be proud of.

Help Us Build It

We have the idea.

Other communities have shown us what is possible.

Now we want to know what Baton Rouge can create.

We are inviting residents, neighborhood organizations, farmers, gardeners, agricultural experts, businesses, grocery stores, nonprofits, universities, churches, community leaders, and local, state, and federal partners to help us develop this idea.

Maybe you know how to grow food.

Maybe you understand grants or workforce development.

Maybe you have land that could work.

Maybe your organization can provide equipment, plants, materials, expertise, training, funding, or another resource.

Maybe you see something we haven’t thought of yet.

We want to hear it.

This proposal should become better as more people bring their knowledge, experience, and ideas to it.

And we want the communities these gardens are intended to serve to have a meaningful voice in determining what they need and how these spaces should work.

Will You Support Five Community Gardens for Baton Rouge?

We are asking Baton Rouge to support the development of five strategically located community gardens, beginning in communities where they can provide the greatest benefit.

We are asking our community to explore expanding appropriate public landscaping to include fruit trees, nut trees, and other edible plants that can provide free food.

And we are asking Louisiana to watch what happens here.

Let’s measure the results.

Let’s learn what works.

Let’s correct what doesn’t.

Let’s improve the model.

And if it works, let’s help other Louisiana communities build what works for them.

Start with five gardens in Baton Rouge.
Grow food.
Teach skills.
Create jobs.
Strengthen communities.
Learn from the results.
Make it better.
And let it grow across Louisiana.

Sources & Existing Models

The ideas in this proposal are informed by successful community-garden and edible-landscaping programs already operating in other American cities, as well as research examining the benefits of community gardening.

City of Seattle — P-Patch Community Gardening Program

Seattle’s P-Patch Community Gardening Program has operated for more than 50 years. By its 50th anniversary, the program had grown to 90 community gardens serving more than 3,500 households. In 2022, P-Patch gardeners helped donate 44,403 pounds of produce to food banks and meal programs, while the program also provided financial assistance and priority placement to help lower-income and historically underserved residents participate.

Seattle P-Patch Program History:
https://www.seattle.gov/neighborhoods/p-patch-gardening/about-the-program/history

City of Madison, Wisconsin — Community Gardens

Madison supports community gardens through cooperation among city departments and community partners. Approximately half of Madison’s community gardens are located on city-owned land.

The city’s stated goals for community gardening include greater access to healthy food, community engagement and empowerment, neighborhood development, leadership development, sustainable land management and stewardship, and youth development and employment.

Madison also identifies community gardens as public spaces that can increase social connectedness and cohesion.

City of Madison Community Gardens:
https://www.cityofmadison.com/dpced/economic-development/food/community-gardens

City of Madison — Edible Landscapes on Public Land

Madison permits approved edible landscapes on city-owned land, including fruit trees, nut trees, and other edible perennial plants.

Once planted on city property, these edible landscapes become accessible to the public. Produce harvested from these public-land plantings cannot be sold.

The city provides the land for approved projects, while participating groups are responsible for project funding or obtaining outside funding. This provides one example of how public resources and community investment can work together.

City of Madison Edible Landscapes Permit Program:
https://www.cityofmadison.com/dpced/economic-development/food/edible-landscapes-permit

Research on Community Gardens

Research examining community gardening has reported associations with benefits including social connection, social cohesion, neighborhood attachment, civic participation, access to healthy food, fruit and vegetable consumption, and psychosocial well-being.

These findings do not mean that every community garden will automatically produce every benefit. They provide evidence for testing, measuring, and improving a community-garden model designed specifically for Baton Rouge.

Systematic Review — Community Gardens and Community/Individual Outcomes:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/35739494/

Research Synthesis — Community Gardens and Social Capital:
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40907160/