Have you ever wondered where your food comes from? Say you ate a tomato at lunch today. That tomato was probably grown on a farm in another state, planted and harvested by a farmer you do not know. The farmer was paid for each tomato he or she sold. Then, the tomatoes were driven in a truck cross-country to a grocery store that is owned by someone else you don’t know. By the time that tomato reached you, it had passed through hundreds of hands and collected lots of germs and unhealthy pesticides. It is extremely important to know where your food is coming from. Making space for a community garden is essential because it would encourage unity in the community, save money, and promote a healthy lifestyle.
First, a community garden is an easy and effective way to encourage community bonding. You probably walk by the same people everyday on your way to school, but you don’t have any reason to talk to them. If there were a community garden, you would share experiences with other people to work towards a common goal of harvesting fruits and vegetables. Many of my friends live in my neighborhood, but if there were a community-wide project, then I could meet people from other neighborhoods too. A community garden would also provide a safe space to interact. It is important for people from different backgrounds to work together to create something. A community garden is exactly the type of thing that unites a community. For example, when I was eight years old, some people wanted a new playground at the elementary school. Instead of hiring a company to install it, the community came together to build an amazing wooden playground. We not only saved lots of money and materials, but we became the only school on the north side with a wooden playground. Students from other schools came to play and I made many new friends this way.
Another reason to have a community garden is to save money. The mayor of Lilburn, Eleanor Markin, is in favor of a community garden. She says,”Not only is a community garden a perfect way to build goodwill between people, but it is extremely economical.” Instead of paying other people to grow our food, we could do it ourselves. The initial cost for clearing out the space and getting materials and tools may seem high, but research shows it really isn’t. We will spend less than two-thirds of what we would spend hiring other people to do this work for us. If we save money this way, we could invest more in other programs.
In addition to making the community more close-knit and money-saving, a community garden also promotes healthy eating and a better lifestyle. Food grown in a community garden is very healthy and natural. It is much healthier than fast food, which a lot of people eat because it is cheap. If there were a garden that people in the community were responsible for, then healthy food would be readily available for a fair price. According to Randal Leekhelm, directer of the Community Garden Coalition,”When people are connected to their food, it encourages them to eat healthily.” Gardening is a simple and easy way to promote good eating habits. Also, the U.S Center for Disease Control and Prevention released statistics that say 40% of adults and 23% of children do not get enough exercise. Exercising is a very effective way to stay healthy. Caring for the garden would require a lot of bending, lifting, and shoveling. What better way is there to exercise than working in the garden?
The goal of a community garden is to make people more active and aware of what they put into their bodies. If people got into the habit of working into a garden, it would quickly become a favored way to spend their time. Come to the garden on Saturday, October 4. Demand that the city council make space for a community garden. It is important to bring the community together and promote a healthier lifestyle.
