In the summer of 2009 , the University of Pennsylvania ’s Center for Public Health Initiatives funded a inquiry subject field of community gardens in Camden , N.J. , measuring the amount of nutrient produced and the ways in which the produce is distribute to people in the community .
Over the past two years , Camden resident physician have expanded community horticulture at a rate that outpaces most , perhaps all , U.S. cities , allot to theHarvest Report . By visiting a wide-ranging sampling of 44 garden , interviewing 100 nurseryman and weigh the crop the garden produced , the University of Pennsylvania researchers gauge that crops harvested in these Camden gardens during the summer of 2009 give nearly 139,000 servings of fresh vegetables for these gardener .
“ Undoubtedly , food output in Camden gardens is expanding the option , availableness and interest in fresh , goodly , local vegetable ” in this urban community of interests , the written report concluded . “ small fry and raw grownup gardeners … are learning to produce their own [ vegetables ] and appreciate how carrots taste when pulled directly from the ground . ”
The research aims to help elucidate the relationship between biotic community gardening and residential district food security in Camden . This report card is part of a three - urban center , multi - yr study that also included Philadelphia and Trenton , N.J. , to measure vegetable production and trace food for thought statistical distribution and other impacts of residential district gardens and urban farms .
The research for “ Harvest Report : Summer 2009 ” was conducted in partnership with the Camden City Garden Club , Inc. and its subsidiary , the Camden Children ’s Garden , which ordinate Camden ’s Community Gardening Program and uphold more than 80 food - producing garden . In 2010 alone , 15 Modern gardens ( four of which measure 1/3 to 1/2 Akko ) have been created to aid meet the food motive of a community that has been take for a “ food desert . ” Several of the new plots are well with child than most of the 31 garden created in 2009 .
In the Harvest Report , community gardens in Camden help oneself exemplify how the great unwashed living in a small , very poor city use horticulture in diverse ways to cover issues of hunger , health , youth , aging , and other social , ecological and economic challenges . In Camden , residential area horticulture ’s emphasis on food production is a feasible strategy to address food security .
Below are some of the subject area ’s cardinal findings :
