Sharing the benefits of the food garden with vulnerable elderly people, and studying its impact on health and the environment 

The pilot project consists in setting up a productive food garden on the roof/terrace of the Annie Girardot nursing home in Paris, directly integrated into the living environment.

The aim is to share the benefits of food gardening with dependant, elderly residents, with a particular focus on those suffering from Alzheimer's disease, and to highlight the impact in terms of health and the environment.

The project involves the implementation of four key actions:

✔ seasonal events around vegetables and berries 

✔ a free, healthy food source

✔ an improved living environment

✔ a concrete and visible ecological action 

These actions make it possible to study the impact of the food garden on both health and the environment. The results of the study are disseminated to the population and public authorities, in order to contribute to a better understanding of the benefits of the food garden for society as a whole.

Monthly Seasonal Events Around Vegetables and Berries

The non-profit food garden creates a variety of activities around the seasonal life of the vegetable garden, and around the vegetables and berries produced on site. Residents are invited to participate in the planting and gardening activities, and to harvest and eat the vegetables and berries. They are also invited to collect and return all their organic waste for recycling into growing media, which engages them in a supportive and collective approach to resource and waste management. Participants feel responsible for their local food production, and proud to produce fruit and vegetables for dependent or frail residents, as part of a supportive and responsible approach to food.

Free, Healthy Food

The non-profit food garden produces a healthy diet based on vegetables and berries, without the use of chemical fertilizers or pesticides. Residents with access to this abundant food source are naturally led to eat more natural, unprocessed food, and less chemical or processed food. The concept is innovative in that it makes it possible to produce free food, in large quantities, entirely from locally recycled organic materials. This demonetization of a part of residents' food supply is a precious help in a context of supermarket food price inflation, and reconnects residents with the direct source of their food and its organic components (seeds, compost, water, air, sun).

Improved Living Environment

The non-profit food garden improves the living environment for residents. Indeed, the presence of a rooftop vegetable garden changes the place, neighborhood, making it greener, livelier, more natural, even therapeutic. The usefulness and social ties that are established improve the living environment by giving it greater meaning. Last but not least, achieving greater food autonomy reduces residents' stress by eliminating anxieties linked to food price inflation, or dependence on supply chains. A resilient place is naturally more serene and pleasant to live in when the going gets tough.

Concrete, Visible Ecological Action

The non-profit food garden offers a way to act together, concretely and simply, to protect the planet:

• Enhancing biodiversity by providing habitat and food for a variety of natural organisms and microorganisms (ladybugs, pollinators, earthworms, bacteria, etc.)

• Valorization of natural resources (compost, rain, sun, CO2, nitrogen)

• Prevention of climate change, by contributing to the decarbonization of the atmosphere: transforming CO2 into food, fixing CO2 in the substrate, and increasing resilience to better cope with the consequences of future climate disruptions.

• Recycling of all local organic waste (vegetable peelings, meal leftovers, coffee grounds, dead leaves, RCW from pruning, etc.) and grey water (e.g. rinsing water).

• Reduced pollution from growing, processing, packaging, and transporting supermarket food (fruit and vegetables are grown without fuel-intensive farm machinery, and consumed locally by residents, without having been industrially processed, packaged, or transported).

• Improved water management, by retaining and directly using part of the rainwater, and preventing it from running off, causing flooding and unnecessary pollution.

• Reduced energy consumption in winter, as even partial plant cover creates a microclimate that reduces heat loss due to wind.

Pilot Site in Paris

We carried out a technical and functional pre-diagnosis in 3 nursing residences in the 13th arrondissement of Paris, and the Annie Girardot retirement residence presented the best conditions, as several roof and terrace areas are already accessible and secure, which significantly reduces the investment requirements linked to the initial installation, and the residence is particularly well-suited to developing high-impact activities around recycling, the life of the food garden, and the use of the vegetables and berries produced.

Provisional Roadmap

• September 2023: Administrative procedures, partnerships, sponsorships

• November 2023: Installation of growing containers

• December 2023: Start-up of recycling cycle (organic waste, dead leaves)

• January 2024: Filling of growing planters (light substrate, entirely recycled locally)

• Feb-March 2024: Food growing begins

• May-June 2024: Start-up of the first vegetable-related activities and the first harvests.

• 2024-2025: Design and development of innovative events to transform the production of vegetables and berries into innovative social and health activities, in order to optimize the beneficial effects linked to the vegetable garden and its self-production.