Organizations team up to promote community garden

With the epidemic of childhood obesity rising, local agencies have teamed up to create Project GROWS, a community garden to tackle the issue in our community.

The Boys and Girls Club, Augusta Health, Mary Baldwin College, Central Shenandoah Valley Department of Social Services, Central Shenandoah Valley Office on Youth, Big Brothers Big Sisters of the Central Blue Ridge and Valley Community Services Board have joined forces, through the coalition Regional Partners for Prevention Services to implement Project GROWS which was recently awarded a $42,947 grant from the Virginia Foundation for Healthy Youth.

Currently one in three children in the United States is obese or overweight, a figure that has risen by almost 300 percent since 1980. This has led to an increase in serious health issues among children including type 2 diabetes and heart disease. It is estimated that in Virginia alone, obesity-related health care costs a total $1.6 billion annually.

Project GROWS mission is to inspire the community to “grow” in physical, emotional, and environmentally healthy ways through collaboration and education. Goals include preventing and reducing the incidence of childhood obesity, and therefore, the incidence of chronic disease, improving self-esteem and mental health by developing leadership and business skills in employed and volunteer youth, and providing equal access to healthy and affordable food.

There will also be an emphasis on nutrition education for people in all area communities regardless of income. Project Grows plans to be a strong business foundation resulting in a multi-faceted community garden that allows for future expansion with creative problem solving, addressing areas of community health needs.

Edited by Chris Graham. Chris can be reached at freepress2@ntelos.net.