This October, Rooted in Solutions harnessed youth-driven power through a community garden initiative, bringing fresh energy and tangible impact to the surrounding community.
Rooted in Solutions is a nonprofit organization that meets the basic needs of people in Metro Atlanta by providing sustainable access to food. Rather than offering only short-term relief, they focus on long-term solutions in three areas: education, community building, and a scientific approach.
“Our most recent initiative expanded our community garden by adding four new garden beds, increasing how much fresh produce we can grow and share with the community. To make it happen, we brought together student volunteers from three schools across Metro Atlanta,” Ethan Steeple, the Chief Financial Officer, said.
Through education, Rooted in Solutions teaches families about nutrition and how to grow their own food. Through community building, they connect neighbors with local resources and each other, using a scientific approach to identify where the need is greatest and measure what works.
By building community gardens, this initiative brought all three together, making them one of the most practical ways to fight food insecurity. They put fresh produce directly into neighborhoods that lack grocery stores, at little cost to the families who use them. Even more important, they are self-sustaining and keep producing with each coming season.
When asked about his favorite part, Steeple said, “Delivering the seedlings to the gardens we tested allowed us to see our data turn into healthy plants and fresh food for real neighborhoods. As CFO, seeing these tangible results gave our budget decisions a clear, meaningful impact beyond just numbers.”
“For many of these students,” he added, “it was their first hands-on experience with food insecurity and how to fight it, and they left knowing how to plant, maintain, and harvest a garden. Together, our gardens have now produced about 300 pounds of crops.”
Several articles published by the American Journal of Public Health (AJPH) highlight that community gardens significantly improve neighborhood food security, increase fruit and vegetable intake among participants, and act as “social infrastructure” that lowers neighborhood stress and builds collective pride.
Nearly 64.2% of food-insecure individuals living within the 29-county service area of the Atlanta Community Food Bank earn incomes above 130% of the federal poverty line, making them ineligible for federal SNAP benefits. This systemic gap leaves over 61% of local food-insecure households entirely dependent on charitable networks rather than government aid.
Building community gardens and teaching composting equips residents with long-term solutions that foster neighborhood independence and pride. “By informing the public about its causes and effects, we encourage more people to take action, whether by volunteering, donating, or supporting local solutions,” Steeple said.
Adding, “What makes this approach powerful is that the solution comes from the community itself. Outside efforts like food drives provide help for a moment, but when neighbors grow, share, and care for their own food sources, the impact lasts.”
