A new sustainable community garden hopes to provide underserved Orlando children and families with fresh and healthy food.
In an effort to ensure the children and families of Orlando’s Westlakes neighborhood have access to fresh and healthy food, 4Roots and the Ginsburg Institute for Health Equity at Nemours Children’s Health are partnering with Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida to create a sustainable community garden and a culinary and nutritional education project at the Jacqueline Bradley and Clarence Otis Family Branch.
This initiative aims to establish a comprehensive, multi system solution to address food and nutritional insecurity within the Orlando community.
“One in five children in Central Florida are impacted by food insecurity,” said 4Roots Founder & CEO, John Rivers. “We are grateful for community partners like Nemours and Boys & Girls Clubs joining us to change that reality in our community. The foundation of our effort is education, both in how to grow healthy food, and in how to prepare it. If we can make healthy food more accessible, educate Westlakes’ families about how important healthy foods are, and how easy it is to prepare, we will start to see a positive change”
Kids and members who attend the Jacqueline Bradley and Clarence Otis Family Branch and volunteers from the Ginsburg Institute and 4Roots constructed the large planter boxes and planted the seeds that will later yield the first harvest as part of the project.
“A critical part of our mission is encouraging our Club members to live a healthy lifestyle,” said Jamie Merrill, President & CEO of Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida. “Food insecurity and poor availability of healthy options have long plagued many of our Club families and neighborhoods we serve. We’re deeply grateful to 4Roots and the Ginsburg Institute for Health Equity at Nemours Children’s Health for providing this community garden, which will tackle both of these problems at their core.”
Once planted, Boys & Girls Clubs of Central Florida will maintain and operate the garden. The produce grown and harvested in the garden will be used by the club to help provide lunches for youth and some will also be made available for them to take home and enjoy with their families. In addition, the youth will have the opportunity to grow their entrepreneurial skills as they learn how to transform the produce from the garden into marketable products that can be sold at local farmers’ markets.
“We know that 80% of a child’s health happens outside of the health care system. By partnering with 4Roots and Boys and Girls Clubs of Central Florida on this amazing garden, we’re working to ensure the children in this community have access to fresh fruits and vegetables,” said Nancy Molello, MSB, Executive Director, Ginsburg Institute for Health Equity at Nemours Children’s Health. “Nemours Children’s is committed to going well beyond medicine to change children’s lives through innovative programs and community partnerships. This is the first funded community grant by the Ginsburg Institute, and the beginning of our community investments in Central Florida.”
The initiative is funded in part through a grant from the Ginsburg Institute for Health Equity at Nemours Children’s Health. The Ginsburg Institute was created to provide leadership, build community partnerships and create innovative programs to improve children’s health and lives by advancing health equity.
