Edible High Town: Assessing the value of urban community gardens.

This report is the joint product of evaluation by a London South Bank University academic (Dr Barbara Czarnecka) and Edible High Town coordinator (Konni Deppe). This report presents an evaluation of an urban community gardening initiative, Edible High Town. Community gardens, including urban community gardens such as Edible High Town, involve: “the communal cultivation of plants, varying in form according to local contexts and the needs and desires of gardening spaces and local residents. It includes collective gardening undertaken for community development, food production, health promotion, horticultural therapy, collective action, and environmental and permaculture education.” In the past, urban community gardens have been identified as providing a model for promoting sustainable urban living. At present, community gardens, especially those located in deprived urban areas such as High Town in Luton, have been used as a public health tool to foster particular health outcomes related to healthy eating, mental health and physical exercise. Moreover, such gardens are also seen as initiatives that contribute to community cohesion by cultivating connections between neighbours and contributing to the regeneration of deprived areas and hence improving the well-being of residents. Hence, this evaluation focuses on assessing the social, health, economic, and environmental benefits of Edible High Town initiative. The report is divided into the following sections: 1) What is Edible High Town? 2) How did we evaluate Edible High Town? Evaluation framework and evaluation methodology; 3) Evaluation results; and 4) Recommendations and conclusion