Senior Vegetable Garden Program
About the program:
Lifelong Montclair, in partnership with Montclair Township, has received a grant from AARP Livable Communities to implement a vegetable gardening program for seniors at our new Senior Community Center at the Mills Building. This program aims to provide the senior members of our community with more opportunities for engaging, hands-on outdoor activities. The first part of the project involves the creation of the vegetable garden site, which will be comprised of several raised beds that are easily accessible and ADA compliant. The raised beds allow for gardeners to reach the expanse of the bed without bending or kneeling which could cause unnecessary pain and stress to the body. The creation of this site has an intergenerational focus by utilizing the help of Troop 12, our local scout troop.
After the construction of the raised garden beds our other community partner, Montclair Community Farms, will provide a seven-course program to work with our seniors to help get the garden established. Some of the beds will get seedling plants to ensure the seniors have hands-on opportunities to tend to and harvest throughout the duration of the course. The vegetables grown will be enjoyed by our seniors at the Mills Building, and any extra will be donated to our community food pantry, Tony's Kitchen, which serves over 200 people a week. The garden will be a continuous project sustained by our seniors with help from Mills Building employees and volunteers each year.
How is this program beneficial for seniors?
This program is centered around providing more opportunities and activities to older residents in our community. Seniors will be able to engage in hands-on activities, where they will be rewarded by the results of their project. Many of our seniors do not live in residences that have enough outdoor space to have their own vegetable garden, so we hope to make the Mills Building the place where they can engage in many enriching and healthy hobbies. A study done by Theresa Scott et al. and published in SAGE Open Medicine (Titled: “Positive aging benefits of home and community gardening activities: Older adults report enhanced self-esteem, productive endeavours, social engagement and exercise.”) found that the action of gardening promotes positive aging amongst older individuals: “This sample of older gardeners gave high rankings to items that tap into sources of meaning in later life, such as achievement, creativity, appreciation of nature and leisure activity, and expressed that their gardens were ‘a part of them’, and a source of ‘pride’. As such, their continued involvement in gardening may be a particularly important contribution to their sense of self.” In addition to the mental health benefits of gardening, the physical benefits are equally tremendous. Older adults participating in adaptive physical activity promotes increased mobility and dexterity. By implementing raised garden beds, we take out the increased physical stressors of bending and kneeling that are common in gardening. Our seniors will be able to comfortably move about the garden and tend to it with only slight bending and stretching which will be beneficial in gently advancing their physical abilities.
How is this program beneficial to our greater community?
The impact of this program is meant to extend further than just the opportunities and benefits it provides to seniors. The creation of the garden itself is meant to prioritize intergenerational collaboration towards a common goal. After the garden has become more established and bears greater yields of vegetables, any excess produce will be donated to Tony’s Kitchen, our community food pantry that serves over 200 meals to in-need older adults per week. The importance of gardening and the benefits of eating a plant-based diet are also major educational aspects that will be disseminated through our senior populations as well as the rest of the community. To learn more about the importance of a plant-based diet and the positive impact it has on our environment, visit the Plant-Based for the Planet tab below.