More Than Flowers

How community gardens build community and fight food insecurity

Fact checked by Shannon Sparks

Behind nondescript county buildings in Wheaton, a “secret garden” blooms. The garden — a quality-of-lifeprogram for residents of the DuPage Care Center — is more than a place to gather. It highlights how gardens can offer therapy and provide healthy food.

Community gardens in healthcare facilities exist in part as a form of therapeutic horticulture — gardening or exposure to plants to foster well-being or a sense of accomplishment. Horticulture therapy activities often have specific treatment goals, such as reducing depression or improving fine motor skills. Most clinical studies have focused on people with dementia or mental health conditions.

“Horticulture therapy is different from regular gardening because it’s directed by someone who is trained,” says Alicia Green, a certified counselor and horticulture therapist and coordinator of Buehler Enabling Garden at the Chicago Botanic Garden. The garden offers horticulture therapy workshops for groups with physical or developmental challenges. “It’s really rooted in stress relief and restoring energy, because being in nature is very restorative,” Green says.

At the DuPage Care Center, garden club members work with the University of Illinois Extension Master Gardener Program and other volunteers to choose which flowers, herbs, and vegetables to plant, tend, and harvest. Concrete paths flanking raised beds enable broad participation. A majority of the residents use wheelchairs. 

Many residents of the DuPage Care Center, which Medicare and Medicaid primarily fund, have suffered a tremendous loss of independence when admitted to the facility. “The garden club brings great pride to the residents and helps restore their dignity and some of their independence. It helps them feel useful again,” says Shauna Berman, the center’s assistant administrator.

At a time when loneliness and food insecurity are on the rise, community gardens play a vital role. The DuPage Care Center garden club stresses socialization and camaraderie. It holds several “farmers markets” for family members and staff, with proceeds funding a celebratory luncheon. Each year, it also donates its final harvest — about 275 pounds of fresh vegetables — to a local food pantry. 

Fresh produce donations help low-income households stretch their budgets, says Man-Yee Lee, director of communications for the Greater Chicago Food Depository, which distributes food to more than 850 partners, including food pantries, soup kitchens, and shelters in Chicago and Cook County. In fact, 1 in 5 households with children in the Chicago metro area faces food insecurity. “Oftentimes, [families] don’t have the resources to eat healthy, so they skip the produce because they don’t have the means to buy it,” Lee says.

The Food Depository anticipates an even greater need for food donations starting May 1, Lee says. That’s when an estimated 360,000 Illinois residents will lose federal food assistance, known as SNAP benefits, according to Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker’s office, as expanded federal work requirements take effect. 

Before the rule changes, 1.9 million people in Illinois received monthly benefits through the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, according to the Illinois Department of Human Services. 

“Access to nutritious food is not just about filling a plate. It’s about fueling our bodies right, supporting mental health, and preventing and managing chronic conditions, like hypertension or diabetes,” Lee says.

And whether you’re growing the food or sharing a meal, it’s a form of connection.

Above photo courtesy of the Chicago Botanic Garden. Originally published in the Spring/Summer 2026 print issue.