What Is CG?

From the Franklin Park Conservatory website:

What is Community Gardening?
Community gardening is the development and revitalization of unused or abandoned spaces into attractive, productive green spaces for the benefit of neighborhood community groups.Community gardening:

• Encourages self-sufficiency
• Contributes to the education and socialization of youth
• Creates opportunities for multicultural understanding
• Provides ecological awareness
• Fosters intergenerational opportunities
• Improves family nutrition and increases community food security
• Promotes biodiversity
• Meets social and recreational needs
• Offers gardening opportunities to people with disabilities
• Provides vocational training and work experiences
• Enhances neighborhood safety and beauty
• Builds coalitions among groups dedicated to community revitalization
  

Community gardens began to develop in the United States in the late 1930s and 40s. Families were asked by the federal government to plant their own community, or “victory”, gardens during and following World War II. Since the start of victory gardens, community gardens have developed into a fun, inexpensive, and healthy way for people to grow their own produce and flowers.

Today, an estimated 18,000 community gardens operate in both rural and urban areas nationwide. While many grow for their families and neighbors, many gardens also donate to local food pantries and homeless shelters.