Home Gardening as Part of the Food Security Safety Net in Rural Appalachia

Home gardening has historically been a subsistence or supplemental form of food procurement worldwide and promoted as a food security project in times of economic hardship. Qualitative research was used to investigate container gardening's potential to inspire further agricultural activities within low-income, low-food-access, rural Appalachian Virginia, thereby impacting food security, food choices, and the local food system. Ethnography and phenomenology methodologies were used through the lens of community-engaged research, and the lived experiences of participants were recognized as valid representations of food insecurity. Semi-structured interviews with fourteen households revealed engagement was deeply connected to previous food production experiences and fueled by existing interest in home gardening. Containers were valued as providing alternative modes to continue a meaningful practice, specifically mitigating challenges of limited mobility for the elderly. As rural areas are experiencing an outmigration of young people and struggling social services, container gardening could be utilized as a low-cost culturally appropriate mental- and nutritional-health service for the rural elderly. Expanded home garden initiatives may also have the long-term potential to be an inexpensive social service to reduce reliance on food security assistance programs, increase vegetable and fruit intake, and provide opportunities for physical activity. It has been found that low-income rural households are more likely to exchange garden produce with friends, family and neighbors when compared to a low-income urban group. Therefore, this existing impetus and culture of reciprocity around home gardening could potentially be harnessed through appropriate programming to impact food security in rural areas of the United States.