Urban Raised Bed Vegetable Garden Designed to Promote Immunonutrition: A Pilot Study

Abstract

In recent years urban agriculture practices have been developed to increase the self-production and self-consumption of fresh and varied foods. While food security in cities continues to decline and several diseases become more frequent in city inhabitants, it is important to implement urban gardens as a potential alternative for families to obtain fruits and vegetables to incorporate into their meals, especially when the supply of these is restricted as happened with the lockdown for the COVID-19 pandemic. In this study the design and implementation of a raised bed urban garden to be tested in western neighborhoods of Mexico City was achieved. The project was divided into four stages: (i) design and development of the prototype garden, (ii) selection of the vegetable palette to promote immunonutrition, (iii) production of educational materials for planting and caring for the garden and (iv) validation. The alternative of urban gardens that provide a variety of plant species that are easy to grow in urban microclimates promotes a sustainable culture by taking advantage of new technologies and virtual education (e-learning), which help guarantee their use and permanence.