2024 Community Challenge Grantee: Holy Cross Germantown Hospital

In late 2019, the Community Health Division team at Holy Cross Germantown Hospital (HCGH) embarked on a unique approach to community gardening to address a need in the surrounding community. They focused on addressing food insecurity and community health and fostering socialization, especially among older individuals.

This innovative idea, said Jessica Yi, a senior program coordinator at HCGH, involved creating a communal growing space and educating people about safe, sustainable horticultural practices that promote healthy gardens, landscapes, and communities.

The HCGH Community Garden project faced a significant hurdle with the onset of the coronavirus pandemic. The hospital had to shift its focus to other urgent priorities, putting the project on hold. However, once it was safe again to engage with the public, the team at HCGH, in collaboration with the Mongomery County Master Gardeners, Mongomery County Public Schools, and Upcounty Hub--a nonprofit providing food and essential community services in upper Montgomery County--resumed their efforts to bring the project to fruition.

According to Yi, the community garden project saw significant expansion in 2023. The Mongomery County Master Gardeners played a crucial role in its planning and development. The garden now boasts 19 in-ground plots measuring 10' x 10' and two gardening tables designed to accommodate gardeners using wheelchairs. These plots are free to those selected to participate in the HCGH Community Garden project.

In addition, 464 square feet of garden beds around the edge of the community garden will serve as a "Harvest Garden" for education and donations to food banks. Staff and volunteers, including the Montgomery County Master Gardeners, will maintain the garden beds.

The HCGC Community Garden project offers individualized education in eating healthy, organic food and sustainable gardening to a community where 24 percent of the population is of Hispanic/Latino descent. Participants are selected based on need, and the HCGH staff ensures that language preferences are respected.

HCGH will use the AARP Community Challenge grant to buy more gardening tools, such as rakes, shovels and wheelbarrows, irrigation materials, seedlings, and plants. The funds will also be used to pay for gardening and nutrition workshops.

So far, 18 families, or 54 individuals, are participating in the HCGH Community Garden project. Over 40 percent of those gardeners have at least one family member over 50 who has been planting seeds, watering the soil, and harvesting produce. In addition to growing fresh fruit, vegetables, herbs, and flowers, the gardeners also benefit from hands-in-the-dirt learning, a sense of community, and gentle physical activity while bonding over a shared love of gardening.

Yi said she was moved and impressed by the novice gardeners' pride and the multi-generational camaraderie that developed while growing and harvesting their crops.

"It's been great seeing what they have grown. One woman has a daughter and granddaughter who are gardening with her. They're planting sweet potatoes, and they're excited about the ways the grandmother cooks the sweet potatoes and shares them with the family.

There's lots of enthusiasm and familial love. People really open up, sharing planting tips and talking about how they enjoy cooking and eating the food they've grown."

Feeling the rich soil on your hands, growing a head of lettuce, or accidently destroying a tomato, said Yi, is an experience everyone should try. "Gardeners kill a lot of plants. It's a low-stakes thing to try that's very rewarding. It makes you feel more connected to reality."