In December 2010, Allegany Franciscan Ministries, Inc. awarded the Moses House a $10,000 Tau grant to help support the Moses House Community Garden project during 2011. Tau grants are awarded to nonprofit organizations “to support innovative and creative programs or aspects of programs that promote healthy behavior, help create healthy environments, and enhance health care delivery, health promotion and health education.” Tau grants are made specifically to support program services  for people who have “limited access to health care and health information” (source: Tau Grant Application Kit).

The Tau grant will support the initial development of a community heritage garden and associated educational and wellness activities at Moses House. In January 2010, the Moses House moved into a building leased from the County in the Mann-Wagnon Memorial Park along the Hillsborough River at the southwest edge of the Sulphur Springs neighborhood. Moses House youth and elders expressed interest in creating a community garden in this new space, in order to connect to the organization’s previous history of cultivating gardens for neighborhood youth at the organization’s previous location in East Tampa.


In July 2010, through a Service-Learning Grant from the Office of Community Engagement at the University of South Florida (USF), Moses House initiated a service-learning partnership with Rebecca Zarger, Ph.D., Assistant Professor of Anthropology at USF. Dr. Zarger and undergraduate students from her Anthropology of Childhood course will provide collaborative assistance during the spring 2011 academic semester. Graduate research assistants will provide technical assistance through the duration of the year-long grant period to ensure the sustainability of the garden.

The Tau grant will allow work to begin on the development of the garden infrastructure as well as support programming to directly link the garden to educational activities to improve the health and well-being of neighborhood children. Service-learning students from USF will interact with neighborhood children in the cultivation of a community garden, providing mentoring and educational outreach about growing healthy foods, sustainability, and nutrition. The garden will serve as a demonstration space and USF students will facilitate the involvement of community elders in sharing their gardening expertise with youth, potentially breaking down generational barriers and improving well-being of both groups.

Moses House will work to achieve the following long-term goals through this project: (1) to assist youth with making plant-to-food connections; (2) to provide the community with local access to healthful foods; (3) to educate youth on the role of fresh, nutritious foods in wellness; and (4) to encourage environmental stewardship through education about the ecological and social benefits of locally grown food. Curricula will also emphasize leadership development, community building, and a sense of place and community pride. Monetary incentives will be provided to Moses House youth to work as Community Gardeners and Healthy Food Educators, fostering social responsibility and potentially improving their job skills. Their duties will include helping to create, maintain, and promote the garden and healthy, nutritional choices.

In addition to learning how to grow their own healthful, nutritious foods, Moses House kids will learn how to do research about our society’s food production and distribution system, which is unsustainable and unjust. Why, in many neighborhoods around the country, are processed foods, high in calories and low in nutritional content, easier to purchase than fresh, healthful, nutrition-rich foods? Why are there so many fast food restaurants in some neighborhoods, but few or no whole foods stores, grocery stores, or fresh produce stores? Moses House kids, along with USF faculty and students, will research these and other questions relating to food, well-being, and sustainability issues in their community.

The Moses House Community Garden Project is proudly supported by the following sponsors: