Locally Grown Food for Wellspring Residents

Abstract

Evidence shows that spending time outdoors can be beneficial to many aspects of health. It is also known that low-income families and individuals have less access to fresh, nutritional food. These two facts in conjunction provide compelling reasons for the use of community gardens and food education in homeless shelters. Wellspring House, Inc, has incorporated locally grown food in its shelters since its founding. This project focused on documenting and scheduling the work that is done in the gardens at Wellspring in order to make the gardens more efficient, effective, and beneficial to both residents/guests and staff. In addition, fresh vegetables from the garden were used to make goods for gift baskets that were gifted to residents and staff during the 2021 season.