Garden Beds Grow Food, Health & Community: A Neighbor's Perspective

Garden Beds Grow Food, Health & Community: A Neighbor's Perspective

Garden Beds Grow Food, Health & Community: A Neighbor's Perspective

A collaboration between CHOP Healthier Together and the Sankofa Community Farm at Bartram’s Garden promotes healthy eating and improved food access by providing low-cost raised garden beds to residents in Southwest Philadelphia.

Establishing healthy eating habits during childhood may significantly promote overall health and reduce the risk of chronic diseases later in life. The goal of the program is to give neighbors the tools and knowledge to grow food on their own turf. In this video, Southwest Philadelphia resident, Shelly, shares a firsthand experience of the garden bed program. 

  • Shelly Casper: I'm Shelly Casper and I'm a participant of the Bartram's Garden Community Garden Program.

    I definitely recommend the Garden Bed Program from Bartram's. I've been really pleased with my experience. I think it's a really great way for people in the community to have both access to fresh fruits and vegetables and also just have a new activity that they can focus some time and energy on. It was super easy from start to finish.

    I feel like I was set up with like everything I needed for the garden to thrive, which was really important to me as like someone who's new to gardening. The garden looks really gorgeous. So just from like an aesthetic level, I just love kind of what it's done for my space. I found it very soothing and it's kind of just like good for my mental health to have like a project that was kind of having to do like a thing every day.

    It was kind of like ritualistic in that way, which I found very comforting and was very nice for me. So there definitely was elements of it aside from just having like fresh produce on hand that I feel were really good for just like my mental well-being. And I'm really pleased with how it turned out.
Transcript Transcript
Young girl in black tee shirt smiling and standing in a field of flowers with a red daisy in hand.
Healthier Together

Celebrating Five Years Through Community Voices

The Healthier Together Five-Year Report is now available! Over the past five years, we have addressed the non-medical factors affecting children’s health in West and Southwest Philadelphia. Discover the inspiring stories, learn about our achievements and new vision for the future.