Community Cultivation: Building Community Health, Growth, and Sustainability Through A Community Garden

The Community Cultivation program is a grant proposal project that explores how a community garden can improve access to healthy food in rural areas, with a focus on Hays, Kansas. Guided by the question of how community-based food initiatives can reduce nutrition-related disparities, this project responds to the HaysMed Community Health Needs Assessment, which identifies nutrition and access to fresh produce as critical concerns for Ellis County. The program offers a sustainable, community-centered approach that increases the availability of fresh produce while building individual gardening and cooking skills. With an emphasis on food-insecure and low-income individuals, the Community Cultivation Garden aims to reduce health disparities tied to socioeconomic status and strengthen community connections. This project utilizes a community engagement framework and a multi-phase implementation plan that incorporates collaboration with sustainable landscapers, the development of gardening infrastructure, and educational classes. Data collection will be tracked on visitor logs and participant surveys to identify access to fresh produce, garden usage, and the use of skills learned through educational programming. An ongoing initiative, data collection and analysis would continue throughout implementation. The anticipated outcomes will contribute to understanding how rural community gardens can promote wellness, sustainability, and equitable access to nutritious food and how this can offer practical implications for replicable community health efforts in similar rural settings.