Fresh produce can be hard to come by when you are living on a budget. An easy solution would be growing your own produce to save on your weekly grocery bill.  Many though who live in apartments or other low income housing may not have the resources or even space to grow their own produce. The Mercer County Horticulture Agent along with the Mercer County SNAP –assistant partnered with their local Bluegrass Community Action office to help combat the lack of fresh affordable produce through gardening.

Blue Grass Community Action (BGCA) offers a variety of programs to enhance the quality of life of their participants. By helping out with basic needs like food and clothing, they can help people move out of poverty and into self-sufficiency.  Following these principles, BGCA built 15 raised beds for families outside of the local senior center. 

At the beginning of the growing season the families were assigned their own raised bed and attended an introduction to gardening class. The horticulture agent discussed soil sampling, planting and things they will need to look out for after the initial planting. The SNAP assistant covered different recipes that could be used with some of the early harvested produce. A SNAP grant of $100 dollars was used to purchase vegetable transplants and seed for the families participating in the program. 

Each month the families were required to meet and discuss what they were seeing in their gardens. The horticulture agent would provide a monthly information sheet on what the families should be seeing in there garden and preparing to do for that month. The families would learn to scout for insects and disease. The SNAP assistant would highlight a vegetable that was ready that month and talk about the nutritional benefits it had.  They would talk about the different ways to prepare that vegetable other than frying. A SNAP recipe would be prepare for the families to try and the class would wrap up with everyone going out into to the garden for a hands on question and answer session about what they were seeing in their gardens.  

During the first year of this project 6 families participated now 10 families are committed to growing their own produce. Out of the 10 families, 3 of the families are returning for their second year of  gardening.  One family  gained enough knowledge during the first year they chose to garden on their own at home,  which in the end of the day is our ultimate goal for these families.