Low-income communities and communities of color often lack access to fresh food from large food retailers within the traditional food system. Growing public concern for these and other food inequalities across the U.S. has generated interest in alternate food outlets such as community gardens as solutions. However, recent scholarly work suggests that community gardens may be more prevalent in predominately white or higher-income communities. This research further suggests that the primary goals and ideology that drive the development of community gardens may resonate more with white higher-income participants than lower-income or racial minorities. As a result, the participants in these programs are often primarily white, high-income individuals. By using negative binomial and spatial regression techniques to examine data from New York City and Minnesota, the current research project aims to clarify to what degree communities of color and low-income communities face a lack of access to community gardens. Further, this research investigates variation in the ideology or framing associated with community gardens with different demographic profiles. Findings suggest low-income communities and communities of color do not lack access to community gardens at a higher rate than white and high-income communities. However, findings show that the goals and ideology of community gardens vary across communities with different demographics. This research develops a more nuanced understanding of the race and class-based barriers to participating in community gardens. It adds to the literature on food access by revealing the degree to which community gardens as alternative, local food programs are accessible and welcoming to low-income, black, and Latino individuals, who have historically experienced barriers to accessing healthy food. Findings suggest that more work could be done to ensure accessibility to community gardens in less educated communities, and that gardens in more diverse communities could focus more on the benefits valued by black Americans and Latinos to ensure these groups feel welcome in the gardens.

The focus of research on community gardens thus far has been on identifying and documenting participation benefits, with less consideration of who can reap these benefits from existing community gardens across the United States. However, the answer to this question can play an important role in ensuring that community gardens help dismantle, instead of reinforce, the broader systems of social inequality leading to food and health disparities. This dissertation complicates our understanding of how community gardens benefit health by exploring what mechanisms shape participation in community gardens and understandings of their benefits, and how these mechanisms vary by race, class, and geographic setting.Study #1 (Ch. 2) seeks to broaden our understanding of fundamental cause theory and the mechanisms through which community gardens improve health. Community garden participation has been consistently shown to improve a wide variety of health outcomes. As interest in their potential for addressing public health concerns grows, it is important to consider the impact of racism and class inequality, which operate as fundamental causes of health disparities, in shaping who benefits most from community garden participation. I ask: (1) to what extent are community gardens exacerbating the impact of racism and class inequality on health through mobilization of individual and garden level flexible resources, and (2) to what extent are community garden health outcomes resulting from improvements to food access? I used quantitative examination including linear and logistic regression techniques and path analysis using structural equation modeling to analyze data collected from community gardeners (N=180) across the United States via an original online survey (Community Garden Survey) that took place between 2015 and 2017. I find minimal support for racism and class inequality operating through individual resource allocation (food production) or garden resource allocation (garden amenities) to shape disparities in diet or health outcomes of community gardeners. Further, I find some evidence that non-White participants see greater food access improvements than their White peers, and therefore greater improvements to diet and health. Community gardens may have a unique ability to counteract the health impacts of racism and class inequality among gardeners. Study #2 (Ch. 3) considers the extent to which community garden frames and locations shape participant demographics. Ample research documents the health benefits of community gardens, but our understanding of the factors shaping gardener participation are limited. Neighborhood demographics, representation, frames, and accessibility have all been theorized to play a role in shaping who participates in community gardens. Yet, our understanding of the interplay between these factors is underdeveloped and this body of work lacks consideration of the racial and class makeup of gardeners on a large scale. The present study combines these factors into a single conceptual model explaining community garden participation, and begins to test this model. I ask: (1) To what extent are the benefits community gardens focus on associated with the presence of different demographic groups among garden participants?, and (2) To what extent are the demographics of garden locations associated with the presence of different demographic groups among garden participants? This quantitative study includes ordered logistic and negative binomial regression analyses of data collected from community garden organizers (N=162) across the United States via an original online survey that took place between 2015 and 2017. Findings show limited impact of garden frames on community garden gardener demographics but stronger evidence of community demographics shaping participant demographics. At the same time, a t-test comparison of means between neighborhood and gardener demographics shows a consistent under-representation of Latinx community members among gardeners. As theorized in the model presented, community garden locations are important for shaping what demographics are represented among gardeners, but the goals and frames focused on within community gardens can simultaneously limit the garden accessibility, and subsequently representation, especially for Latinx residents. Study #3 (Ch. 4) explored differences in how urban and rural community gardeners and managers understand the health benefits of community gardens. Little work has compared rural and urban community gardens, despite differences in their structural context. Little existing research has considered rural community gardens at all; even fewer take a comparative approach, making the geographic comparison in this study especially important. I therefore ask: How do organizer and participant understandings of community garden benefits differ in urban and rural environments, and what benefits do they emphasize as particularly salient? I use in-depth interviews (N=34) with rural and urban community gardeners and managers to explore differences in how community garden participants understand the health benefits of community gardens. Findings reveal that rural garden participants perceive community gardens as embedded in local communities, strengthening communities by providing valuable social buffers to health disparities. Rural areas often have poor food environments and limited access to health care facilities and doctors, sometimes relying on social and human capital to overcome these disinvestments. As a result, social connections hold unique importance for health in rural settings. In contrast, urban community garden participants emphasize contributions to “green” urban space, concluding that community gardens represent meaningful contributions to participant health and wellness in such settings. Unlike in rural settings, urban areas offer greater access to food and health care; yet, access to the natural environment is especially important for the health of urban residents, given the limitations on green space inherent in urbanized areas. This comparative approach to the health benefits of community gardens in rural and urban settings reveals a more nuanced picture of benefits that reveals the ability of community gardens to represent their constituents and adapt to the needs of their communities. This dissertation broadens our understanding of community gardens by investigating how racial, class, and geographic identities and collectivities shape access to, use, and benefits of community gardens. Findings demonstrate how community gardens can improve food access and health for populations at greater risk of food insecurity and health disparities, and inform recommendations on improving the social equity of local food systems.