Optimizing urban gardens for health and environmental benefits

Social Benefits

Improve awareness of health and climate benefits of gardens
Increase food access, nutrition, and health prevention
Improve access to desirable plants gardens, physical and mental health benefits of gardens
Exchange food and garden stories and learning across cultures, levels of income, generations, and disciplines during garden design and implementation
Facilitate community collaboration to help maintain gardens

Ecological Benefits

Decrease food system carbon footprint by localizing food sources and investing in plant-based foods
Lower healthcare system’s carbon footprint by preventing chronic health conditions that require a lot of healthcare resources
Increase biodiversity
Regenerate soil health
Drawdown carbon

Economic Benefits

Decrease healthcare and household food cost
Generate workforce development opportunities for underemployed people in frontline nonprofits, regenerative agriculture, land restoration, landscape services, gardeners, farmers, nurseries, horticulture, farming, farming supplies, seed production, local food system operations, horticultural therapists, nutrition professionals, climate professionals, designers, etc.
Leverage additional resources for Nutrition Garden Rx efforts from medical sources

Long-Term Benefits

Create Nutrition Garden Rxs for specific medical conditions and nutrient deficiencies
Produce modular Nutrition Garden Rxs for disaster relief and food security
Use a similar design process to support locally-based international development organizations’ missions

Primary Activities

1) Co-design and implement therapeutic model gardens and programs that address specific health conditions and/or general wellness.

2) Facilitate the transfer of these models to other communities, adapt them in alignment with each unique local culture and ecology, while sharing knowledge to suit each audience's capacity, goals, and abilities.

3) Promote health and climate benefits of gardens to the public and healthcare communities to inspire investments therein.

Priority Project

Co-design and implement customized residential model therapeutic gardens and related programs optimized for health and environmental health benefits.

Meet the Team

Executive Co-Director

Deidre Schuetz

An international wellness consultant/ coach for 20+ years, most of her training comes from living abroad for 6 years (West Africa 5 years), with an academic background in Arts and Administration (MA), International Studies and Spanish (BAs), and certificates in Nonprofit Management (graduate level), social innovation/ entrepreneurship, climate and healthcare, mind-body wellness optimization, horticultural therapy, Massage Therapy (license). She is an American Community Garden Association Board Member and trilingual (French, Spanish).

Managing Co-Director

Kenneth Powell-Wilson

An adviser for at-risk youth for 30+ years and a supervisor for students/ adults experiencing diversabilities for 15+ years, Kenneth currently stabilizes/ cares for patients experiencing behavioral health crises with integrated, multidisciplinary healthcare teams. He has extensive experience facilitating learning so that young people can access essential resources to feel happy/ successful. With a long history of standing up for people in vulnerable situations, he is passionate about exchanges about quality self-care, health, and well-being. His academic background includes Sociology, Psychology, Mental Health, Human Development, and Organizational Dynamics and is a Peer Wellness Specialist (PWS) and Qualified Mental Health Associate (QMHA-R).