Wasatch Community Gardens in Salt Lake City created a Community Education Program to teach people of all ages how to grow and eat healthy, organic, local food through gardening and cooking classes and community events.
Vegetable gardening encourages people not only to eat the fresh produce they grow, but also to engage in light exercise as they maintain their gardens. A healthy diet includes three to five servings of vegetables and two to four servings of fruit each day, and many Utahns are not getting that minimum requirement. For many, a lack of space for gardening and lack of gardening education are the primary barriers to increasing fruit and vegetable consumption in their diets.
By providing space to garden and education on growing and preparing fresh, healthy foods, Wasatch Community Gardens helps improve diets and health. They also reach out to apartment dwellers who have limited space to grow food and teach them what vegetable species thrive in containers.
SelectHealth recognizes the growing potential from Wasatch Community Gardens as another example of how Utah Gives Back.