It’s almost that time a of year again. We are beginning to take volunteers for our community garden at the FTCC. It may be chilly but it will soon be time to weed and get the planters and boxes ready. We will also be painting the benches and expanding our pallet growing repurpose project aimed at reducing recycling and making the earth a greener space . Gammys Garden provides the space for powerful neighborhood-level social change. When a group of caring community members come together to organize, build, and manage a community garden, an impressive array of benefits to the community will arise .

To make sure that our Little ones are able to be involved(at a distance for now). Children will again be able to pick up a seed starter kit when picking up food at the Five Towns Community Center beginning in May at Gammys Pantry. Ms Young’s homework Zen Den will have data collecting sheets at that time as well. We will grow learn and eat together!! What kinds of benefits?

1. Gammys Garden is a place to come with a friend or meet one of your neighbors. We live in a society in which, for many of us, our neighbors are strangers.

2. Community gardens provide the opportunity to meet, work beside, and even form friendships with people who might live down the street, but who you might never have had the chance of meeting with before , closing generational and cultural divides.

3. It is a place to learn.

4. It will be a safe place to begin to build healthy and positive friendships. Studies have shown therapeutic benefits for people recovering from psychological ailments such as Posttraumatic Stress Disorder; mental and emotional benefits for aging seniors; and improved attention in children with Attention Deficit Disorder. An intersecting fact, gardening is also considered mild to moderate exercise.

5. Gammys garden is a place for children and adults to explore nature in the middle of an urban area. Gardening has been shown to provide many benefits in children, including improved attitudes about healthy food, and also a better understanding of life science . Community gardens are also valuable to wildlife, creating habitat corridors throughout our city.

6. Gammys garden is a place to practice teamwork. And at Gammys Pantry we always say “ Team Work Makes Dream Work”. Working effectively as a team on an ongoing basis, particularly in a way where participation is voluntary, can be enormously challenging–and rewarding. Personal growth, and invaluable skills, are gained along the way.

7. Community Gardens empower us to organize and advocate for ourselves and for our communities. Skills that we work on practicing teamwork include how to have a constructive meeting, how to work well with people from many different cultural and economic backgrounds. Other important skills practiced for teens and adults alike include , working with and learning styles and personalities, how to resolve problems peacefully. At the same time these skills can then be focused on community advocacy. Community gardens teach us through our successes that we can make our community a better place.

8. Successful community gardens are built and continued through contributions of time, talent, and resources from the communities where they are located.

9. They provide space to carry on our food cultures. Food is a powerful element of tradition. Community gardens provide the opportunity to grow, eat, share, and celebrate one’s traditional foods–even far away from one’s birthplace.

Gammys Garden hopes to provide a space to grow low-cost, fresh fruits and vegetables for community members to ensure that community members food insecurity needs are met.