The Chattanooga-Hamilton County Health Department’s Step ONE (Optimize with Nutrition and Exercise) program is pleased to announce the awardees of the 2017 Teaching Garden Grants. Teaching Gardens are neighborhood-based gardens designed to foster healthy relationships between people and food. The awards will be used next year to establish a new garden or expand/improve an existing garden ($1,000), or sustain an existing garden ($250). The awardees are:
New or existing garden improvement award:
- Avondale SDA School
- Best Beginnings Childcare Center Collegedale
- Brainerd Baptist School
- Chattanooga State
- First Centenary United Methodist Children’s Enrichment Center
- Hamilton County High School
- Normal Park Museum Magnet School
- The Next Door
- UTC Children’s Center at Brown Academy
Sustainability award:
- Best Beginnings Hickory Valley
- Best Beginnings Hixson
- Eastdale Youth & Family Development Center
- Greenwood Terrace Apartments
- Kids of Growth/Victory Garden (2 gardens, middle and elementary schools)
- Oak Hills Neighborhood
- Red Bank Elementary School
- Sale Creek School
- South Chattanooga Library
- South Chattanooga Youth & Family Development Center
The garden program allows communities to examine deeper issues like “food deserts.” Food deserts are geographically defined areas lacking access to healthy food. The USDA estimates 21% of Hamilton County residents live in food deserts. This includes both urban and rural parts of the county.
Food deserts are one aspect of what Public Health officials call the “Social Determinants of Health.” Social Determinants of Health are upstream conditions and behaviors that contribute to downstream negative health outcomes. Along with food deserts, poverty, crime, low education attainment, urban/rural development patterns, unemployment, and lack of access to health care form an upstream cluster. Downstream unhealthy outcomes include chronic diseases such as heart disease, obesity, and diabetes, and personal violence injury. These outcomes are painful, debilitating, expensive to manage and treat, and reduce the quality of life.
