In Rose Park, the neighborhood garden grows more than vegetables. The space has become a hub for neighbors to come together across different generations and cultures through the shared act of gardening.
In March 2024, Karina Lugo-Villalba, the volunteer program coordinator at Wasatch Community Gardens and a community advocate for Rose Park, initiated a cleanup operation for the Rose Park garden. When she started, the space had suffered from years of neglect, with overgrown vegetation towering over fences, walkways and some garden plots.
“As a group, we realize we are accomplishing a lot together,” she said. “Beautifying a space, even just bringing value to pockets in our neighborhoods and these shared spaces, gives folks the bigger opportunities to engage.”
Lugo-Villalba said the garden fosters genuine connection by removing formal roles and expectations, allowing people to be themselves without social pressure.
“You’re not in a professional environment, so to speak. You’re not at work, so you don’t have to fill a particular role,” Lugo-Villalba said. “I think it’s just like minds coming together to cultivate, create, experiment, learn from each other and look out for each other. It’s a safe space.”
Revitalizing shared spaces can improve a community’s overall well-being. Research from the University of Turin links community gardens to better physical, social and mental health by boosting engagement and access to fresh, local food.
“It brings a lot of relative pride, community connectivity and responsibility. Folks like to call it stewardship, but when we see it as more of a responsibility, because it impacts all of us, then people are delighted to do it,” she said. “And using a place like the community garden, it’s a platform that already exists.”
Rooted Together
New Roots SLC operates several plots at the Rose Park Garden. The International Rescue Committee, a Salt Lake City nonprofit, runs New Roots as one of its many programs.
The organization focuses on assisting immigrant families who have been displaced. It aims to improve access to fresh, local, affordable and culturally appropriate food for immigrant communities by enabling them to plant physical roots in their new communities.
“[New Roots is] a garden partner, but it’s also culturally a partner of the neighborhood,” Lugo-Villalba said.
New Roots SLC partners with various groups, including Wasatch Community Gardens and Salt Lake County. The groups help secure plots in community gardens for refugee families and develop new gardens.
“If you walk into the Rose Park Garden, there are so many languages that are spoken,” Lugo-Villalba said. “There can seem like a divide because there’s a language barrier, but the intuitiveness of this neighborhood, being so diverse… language doesn’t have to be a barrier, gardening is universal.”
New Roots SLC’s community gardening program is currently working with over 140 families in 13 garden sites across the Salt Lake Valley, according to their website.
Food insecurity remains a significant challenge in Utah. According to Feeding America, one in seven Utahns faces food insecurity. Community gardens can contribute to resources that combat food scarcity. At the University of Utah, Edible Campus Gardens donates freshly grown vegetables to FeedU Pantry, which provides free food to students.
New Roots also operates two farmers’ markets in Salt Lake County to combat low food access. It also offers training programs and larger gardening plots.
“It’s the example we’re able to model, what is ok to do and how important it is to do it together,” she said. “We have to continue to be the models and not let those places go. I fight for the garden, I fight for Rose Park.”
w.ruzanski@dailyutahchronicle.com
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