Growing Together: Strengthening La Conde’s Community Kitchen & Programs

Project Sponsor: Las Parceleras Afrocaribeñas – La Conde, Glenny Alvarez

Team Members: Nate Ambrad, Vishwa Devisetti, Stephen Sequira, Michael Troiano

Project Advisors: Professor John-Michael Davis and Jessica Santos

Project Files: 

Abstract:

Puerto Rico has the fourth oldest population globally and faces challenges supporting the mental and physical health of its elderly, especially in marginalized rural communities. Our project developed a community garden to aid La Conde, a community-based organization supporting an older population on the San Juan outskirts. We conducted interviews with established community gardens in San Juan and La Conde stakeholders to implement a pilot community garden program that provided produce and supported at-home gardening. We developed a full-scale garden design for La Conde with potential for four garden beds and constructed two pilot garden beds, a compost system, and a volunteer management process. These efforts demonstrate community gardening to be a low-cost program to enhance wellbeing.

Executive Summary

Introduction:

Puerto Rico ranks fourth in the world for the highest percentage of elderly population (Richter, 2024). Puerto Rico’s elderly struggle with wellbeing due to insufficient support networks (Richter, 2024). Rising living costs and food insecurity push working-age adults to the U.S. mainland. An outmigration of 700,000 people over 15 years doubled the percentage of elderly people (adults 65 and over) to 21% by 2019 in conjunction with increasing mortality rates (Matos-Moreno et al., 2022b). Due to the outmigration of working-age adults, demographic shifts occurred. This resulted in reduced funding and workers available for social services while changing a traditional family dynamic that relied on children to support their parents. We place a focus on catering to elderly’s needs since older adults (50-64) are in a transitional phase and developing wellness issues experienced when they become elderly.

The small communities of San Antón, Saint Just, and Los Mirtos at the outskirts of San Juan have been wrestling with the challenges of caring for an aging population amidst economic struggles. The rapid aging issue was exacerbated by the 2017 closure of a community anchor institution, the Carlos Conde Marín School, which further encouraged the exodus of younger families. On average for the United States, 16.8% of adults are 65 and older with an 11.1% poverty rate (Caplan, 2023; Shrider, 2024). The same age and poverty rate for Saint Just, San Antón, and Los Mirtos (Martín González county subdivision) are 20.7% (30.8%), 21.5% (23.2%), and 18.4% (31.3%), respectively (U.S. Census Bureau, 2020). Parceleras AfroCaribeñas has worked to restore the abandoned Carlos Conde Marín school as a community wellness hub called La Conde. Led by a group of intergenerational Afro-Caribbean women, community leaders, activists, and artists, – Glenny Alvarez, Dolly Santiago, and Dolly Denisse – their mission is to transform the rescued school into a community space that encourages, promotes, and values neighborhood creativity as a trigger for opportunity (Parceleras AfroCaribeñas, 2020). Parceleras AfroCaribeñas is seeking to incorporate a community garden to support their community kitchen and provide opportunities for older adults to be active and socially engaged.

Project Goal, Objectives, and Methods:

Our team designed a full-scale community garden and piloted initial implementations supporting the community center at the rescued Carlos Conde Marín School. We achieved this by completing the following objectives:

  • Identify key attributes of successful gardens in San Juan and how they serve as community spaces.
  • Formulate the design and management strategy for La Conde’s community garden.
  • Co-implement a pilot community garden with La Conde community members.

We employed multiple methods – observations, interviews, meetings, learning-by-doing – to achieve our objectives. We visited four community gardens – Para La Naturaleza, Finca Escuela de la Perla, Huerto Semilla, Huerto Sagrado – to identify key attributes of successful gardens in San Juan and use interactions to build supportive relationships between gardens (i.e. compost and seed donations). We conducted five semi-structured interviews with La Conde staff and volunteers to understand their design, operation, and management system expectations for the garden plan. The information collected was used to create a garden design and management plan in collaboration with La Conde stakeholders. We then conducted a pilot implementation to initiate the community garden, which compared two styles of garden beds, a compost system, and an irrigation system. During garden piloting we invited interested community members to assist in construction, during which we described the reason behind each step (i.e. painting for garden bed durability).

Key Findings:

We categorized information from our findings into two main sections for application of information to create a garden design with a management strategy.

Key Attributes of Successful Gardens

The tropical climate in Puerto Rico raises unique challenges and opportunities for community gardens. Garden pests present significant challenges in maintaining healthy plants, as they feed on leaves, stems, roots, and fruits. At Huerto Sagrado, iguanas were managed by replacing low wooden beds with tabletop beds then strategically planting ornamentals, deterring iguanas. Common pests like lizards, insects, and rats were also managed by burying compost to contain odors. Rapid organic material decay in Puerto Rico is a challenge and opportunity. Rainfall and humidity impact the durability of wooden structures. Visited community gardens recommended using treated wood or plastic beds for longevity. All the community gardens visited had composting areas that, due to the high heat and humidity, more efficiently repurposed food waste into garden fertilizer. Several community gardens offered support indicated that partnership opportunities can emerge such as Para la Naturaleza donating shrubs and compost.

Localizing La Conde’s Garden Plan

Interviews with La Conde stakeholders defined garden users, community engagement opportunities, and crop selection. La Conde community members emphasized designing the garden to accommodate the aging community of 50- to 65-year-olds. Observations of current programs offered at La Conde highlighted the community’s age and physical limitations. Volunteers expressed difficulty in caring for large, high-maintenance plants indicating a need for walkable paths and ergonomic working conditions. Staff recommended a program that caters to the elderly’s mental needs, suggesting an educational focus with fast-growing plants so older adults can learn new skills and see quick results for cognitive stimulation. La Conde’s aging community benefits from creative and wellness enhancing programs. Interviewed staff members recommended hands-on programs for volunteers using the theater program as an example. The team found that the safe, familial atmosphere relaxes community members. This allows community members to build new social networks and provide opportunities to engage in wellness activities. La Conde’s community expressed a desire to produce local food primarily to support their kitchen. The community kitchen provides free meals to community members three times a week. Volunteers expected the garden to provide food for the community kitchen and, along with staff, suggested the possibility of selling surplus produce or ready-made foods for additional funds. We expected that garden produce would improve nutrition and reduce costs. The team worked with volunteers to create a ranked list of produce prioritized by kitchen usage, monetary benefit, and store availability issues (Figure A).

Key Recommendations:

The full-scale garden plan is outlined followed by scale up recommendations from pilot implementations.

Community Garden Overview

We created a full-scale localized community garden plan for La Conde to support their kitchen and community. The selected plot is in the North-West corner of the La Conde school property with a total area of 1,189 square feet, however approximately one quarter (291 square feet) is unworkable due to the softness of the ground (Figure B).

There is space for three raised (40 in high) planter tables (30 in x 6 ft, 15 square feet) and one raised (18 in high) garden bed (4 ft x 8 ft, 32 square feet) for a combined garden area of 77 square feet. We included a compost bin and irrigation system with buried piping. The road facing fence (45 foot long) will contain shrubs to create a visual barrier. Eight passion fruit and seven American Brunfelsia will be donated from Para la Naturaleza. They will be spaced three feet apart and line the fence. Garden tools will be stored in a nearby storage room or a further building. Two bed designs were selected to test their long-term effectiveness. The planter tables cost $335 with 11-inch soil depths for $22.30 per square foot. The raised garden beds cost $288 with 18-inch soil depth and stools for $9.81 per square foot. The total cost for the full-scale garden (three sowing tables, planter bed, compost, irrigation) would be approximately $1,500. The team specified planting layouts for each garden bed and surroundings based on La Conde preferences with an emphasis on companion planting (Figure C).

Pilot Implementations

The pilot implementation provided an irrigation system, composter, and two garden beds (Figure D). There is space for two additional garden beds costing $300 each. The total with the irrigation system and composter was approximately $900. Should La Conde wish to expand further they would need to find additional space or prepare the unworkable area through landscaping.

Recommendations for Scale Up

The team recommends managing the garden with a hybrid top-down, bottom-up approach using a Kuban board. A dedicated La Conde staff member can provide organizational support such as oversight, funds, and task tracking, while volunteers handle day-to-day tasks like weeding, planting, and harvesting. A Kuban board with an associated spreadsheet offers an easy visual task-tracking system. Volunteers will self-assign tasks then complete work on their own timeframe while La Conde relies on a volunteer garden manager to track and update tasks (Figure E).

La Conde can scale up their community garden through four avenues: external funding, garden support networks, volunteerism, and distributed home gardening. The team recommends leveraging local donations, grants, and federal agencies like the USDA that support community gardening initiatives and rely on existing community kitchen donors. La Conde can maintain contact with the La Perla garden and Para la Naturaleza to develop a community garden support network. Both organizations were willing to donate seeds, saplings, or compost. Leveraging such partnerships reduces costs and La Conde should inform them of future projects to check what support they can provide. La Conde should also leverage their dedicated volunteers to fund and facilitate garden expansion throughout the year as the team did during the pilot phase. To support home gardening, La Conde should offer workshops and basic supplies. With La Conde providing seeds and compost, community members can start home gardens, subsidize their produce needs, contribute to La Conde’s community kitchen, and supply seeds or compost for future expansions.

We recommend La Conde use garden produce in their community kitchen rather than distributing it to volunteers and community members. This approach is not expected to discourage volunteering, as volunteers and community members receive meals from La Conde’s kitchen and often seek ways to give back. Volunteers can start their home gardens through La Conde’s workshop if they want garden produce.