Schools, child care programs, worksites, and communities can work together to share land and develop a shared garden space. When groups formalize such a relationship, it’s called a joint-use agreement. Joint use gardens have the potential to:

• Increase access to fresh fruits and vegetables
• Help community members save money spent on fresh produce
• Provide opportunities to share fruit and veggie nutrition information, recipes, and cooking skills
• Increase physical activity
• Connect people of different ages, races, incomes, and ethnicities
• Build community connections
• Reclaim and beautify abandoned property
• Teach business and life skills
• Provide donations of surplus produce to food shelters

American Community Gardening Association offers leadership-development training and suggests how to raise funds for training.

CitySprouts addresses schoolyard gardening in public schools.

Community Gardening in New Hampshire: From the Ground Up explains how to organize a community garden, highlights five New Hampshire examples, identifies helpful resources and provides a glossary.

Cultivating Community Gardens: The Role of Local Government in Creating Healthy, Livable Neighborhoods

Early Sprouts is a 24-week seed-to-table curriculum for preschool children.

Eat Smart, Move More North Carolina: Growing Communities through Gardens is a planning and resource guide for anyone who is thinking about starting a community garden. The guide describes a community garden, its benefits, how to find or start a garden and tips for growing, storing, preparing and enjoying fruits and vegetables. It also highlights state and national gardening resources.

Edible Schoolyard Project provides how-to gardening information, recipes, classroom lessons, and inspiration from program across the nation and around the world.

Establishing Land Use Protections for Community Gardens: A Fact Sheet for Advocates

Got Dirt? Garden Tool Kit for Implementing Youth Gardens

Ground Rules: A Legal Tool Kit for Community Gardens helps overcome legal and practical barriers to establishing community gardens on land that is not municipally owned. Provides model agreements and other documents that can easily be customized to simplify building an agreement that benefits both landowners and the community.

Joint Use Agreements

• Checklist for Developing a Joint Use Agreement
• Cultivating Community Gardens: The Role of Local Government in Creating Healthy, Livable Neighborhoods
• Establishing Protections for Community Gardens
• Opening School Grounds to the Community After Hours - a tool kit for increasing physical activity

NH Farm to School Program identifies resources and funding opportunities for school gardens, and highlights NH school gardens.