Exploring the impact of community gardens and community kitchens on mental health: a scoping review

Abstract

Participants engaged in community gardens (CGs) processes experience many positive outcomes, from social networking to intimacy with nature. Yet there exists a gap in the literature on CGs between their co-creative and co-participative practices and the impact of such collaborative social practices on mental health, especially as it relates to structurally marginalized populations. To this end, our scoping review explores what is known about the relationship between CGs and mental health benefits. Arksey and O’Malley’s scoping review method was used and supplemented by Levac, Colquhoun, and O’Brien’s emphasis on research and policy practice implications. Twenty-two studies met the inclusion criteria and they were conducted in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, Australia, New Zealand, Spain, Portugal, Japan, and Singapore. Most of the studies used qualitative or mixed methods. The CGs in this review were situated in prisons, university campuses, a church, a shelter, urban rooftops, and urban and rural neighbourhoods. These CGs engaged diverse populations, including immigrants, refugees, newcomers, Indigenous peoples, women, seniors, students, youth, racialized peoples, and persons with disabilities and mental health issues. Our results reveal that the mental health of CG participants is inseparable from engagement processes like collaborative place-making labour that engender social connectedness, collaborative learning, empowerment, and a connection to nature. We gesture to the affinities between this co-creative and co-participative process and similar land and/or place-based practices with an eye to the potential for civic participation and/or awareness of human rights to advance mental health equity.