HealthNet Community Garden Maintenance Volunteers Needed!

HealthNet's Healthy Aging Committee is recruiting a team of volunteers to help water and weed the HealthNet Community Garden on a rotating schedule over the 2021 growing season. The time commitment is one hour per shift.

The garden, built in 2020 thanks to funding from the HealthNet Foundation’s Garden Fund, is located within one of the city’s food deserts and is on the campus of HealthNet Martindale-Brightwood Health Center, 2855 N. Keystone Ave. in Indianapolis.

The garden supports the efforts of the Martindale-Brightwood 7 initiative and the neighborhood's Quality of Life plan to build a food resource network for area residents.

A 2019 study by the Polis Center at Indiana University-Purdue University campus revealed that one fifth of the city's population now lives in a food desert. Food access tends to be worse for Black residents and people in poverty. About one third of Black residents in Indianapolis live in food deserts, and the same is true for people in poverty. 

The Martindale Brightwood neighborhood has the highest poverty rate in Marion County, and is 83.7% Black, 8.5% white, 3% Hispanic, and 1.3% Asian. With a median household income of $23,203, 40 percent of households pay more than 35 percent of their income towards rent or mortgage. Due to inequality (poverty and access to resources) in this community, residents face shorter life expectancy rates.

Produce from the garden will be given away to health center patients and community members this summer and fall. 

If you'd like to help with garden maintenance, please complete an application and email it to volunteer@indyhealthnet.org.

Questions? Email volunteer@indyhealthnet.org or call 463-231-2261 (local number).