Residents at Ecumen Parmly Lakeview Apartments are now harvesting the vegetables of their labor from box gardens they planted last spring with a grant from Allina Health.
The $4,035 grant supported starting a gardening group to work together on designing, planning, planting and harvesting the garden. The group planted tomatoes, peppers, green beans, peas, radishes, kohlrabi, squash, cucumbers, zucchini and carrots.
“The residents are very pleased with the products coming out of their gardens,” said Dawn Cash, the Service Coordinator at Parmly Lakeview Apartments. “Plus, they’ve had a wonderful social experience working together.”
Allina Health awarded the grant through its Neighborhood Health Connection program which supports communities in building social connections, among the same group of adults, through healthy eating and physical activity. This year sixty-eight grants were awarded to community nonprofits and local government organizations in the areas of central and southern Minnesota and western Wisconsin served by Allina Health.