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This town is tackling education, nutrition, and crime by growing fruits and veggies.

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Horizon Organic

Can you imagine fighting crime with fruits and vegetables?

Not with some sort of make-believe banana gun. I'm talking about the real thing here! It sounds a little out there, but believe it or not, the tactic worked for one particular Texas town.

And that's not the only thing that changed.


Over on the East Side of San Antonio, one nonprofit has been re-energizing the community with a back-to-basics approach: gardening.

Stephen Lucke started Gardopia Gardens while attending the University of the Incarnate Word (UIW) as a way to educate his peers on the relationship between nutrition and poverty. He felt the best way to address those issues was through a community garden where everyone could get involved and grow amazing produce together.

Image via Gardopia Gardens, used with permission.

Today, the project that started out on a college campus has evolved into something much bigger. They now have their own location as well as gardens in five schools and one community center.

This is especially important when you consider the alarming produce situation in the area.

Image via Gardopia Gardens/YouTube.

"A large population lives in what we call ‘food deserts,’ and these are areas where healthy, fresh food, particularly produce, is unavailable," Jeff Crane, associate dean at the College of Humanities, Arts, and Social Sciences at UIW, explains on their YouTube channel.

"So people in those communities are highly dependent on very salty, sugar-laden, high-fat processed food and, frankly, often don’t have access to a grocery store at all. So community gardening is a way to address that issue."

By providing an alternative, Gardopia Gardens can help instill the values of wellness that contribute to a more balanced lifestyle.

Even better, Gardopia Gardens has had a positive effect on one of the highest crime areas in San Antonio.

The intersection of Nolan and New Braunfels has a bit of a dangerous reputation. So Gardopia Gardens set up shop there and helped change that. In the three years since the first seed was planted, crime within a four-block radius dropped over 50%.

Lucke explains: "The reason that we're at that location is we’re doing CPTED, which is Crime Prevention Through Environmental Design, and we partnered with the San Antonio Housing Authority and the Byrne Grant that they received from the Department of Justice to help reduce crime in the area."

Image via Gardopia Gardens, used with permission.

Essentially, by providing a beautiful oasis in a once-downtrodden part of town, they've made a significant dent in the crime rate. The theory of CPTED says you can influence a particular location by making changes to its design. The goal is to simply to reduce fear and improve the quality of life in the surrounding community.

Local resident Sabrina Garza told the San Antonio Express-News, "I would have never, ever taken my kids anywhere on the East Side to play [before], but now there’s that space and I feel safe."

The garden is also looking to the future by providing knowledge for today’s youth.

Image via Gardopia Gardens, used with permission.

"I came to understand that the garden could be interdisciplinary when it comes to academics," says Lucke. "You can teach English, reading, science, math. You can teach any subject and do it kinesthetically so that students can be hands-on learners and hopefully help them retain the information longer."

Take math, for example, a subject you wouldn't necessarily associate with gardening. Lucke explains: "A lot of times students can’t understand the concept of volume or why you use exponents when you’re putting in the units. But I help them understand that if I’m going to purchase soil, I need to know how many cubic yards or cubic feet of soil I need to order."

The best part is the students aren't missing a beat. Lucke makes sure to supplement what they're learning in class with his lessons in the garden so they all work hand in hand. Everything is based on the pacing guide of the school they're working at.

But the most important lesson that the garden is teaching might just be compassion.

After all, gardening can be done by almost anyone. But in this instance, it has the ability to empower a community and break down stereotypes.

"Gardening — not only is it interdisciplinary and intergenerational, but it’s also community-building," says Lucke. "When it’s in the garden, it’s nondiscriminatory. It’s an equalizer. Everybody is getting their hands dirty!"

Image via Gardopia Gardens, used with permission.

Despite their incredible success, they know there’s still work to be done.

Like the very plants they help grow, their community initiative needs constant care and attention if it’s going to blossom to its fullest potential. Yes, they have a lot of the basics in place. But their plans for the future would really take Gardopia Gardens to the next level: a full-on community center complete with a juice bar, outdoor gym, Wi-Fi, the works!

So if you're interested in supporting their awesome cause, they could use a little help moving toward their goals.

Whatever happens, no doubt the seeds of change have already been planted.

Image via Gardopia Gardens, used with permission.

Just imagine what the world would look like if more of these sprouted in our communities!

Health

4 simple hacks to help you meet your healthy eating goals

Trying to eat healthier? Try these 4 totally doable tricks.

Photo by Anna Pelzer on Unsplash

Most of us want to eat healthier but need some help to make it happen.

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When it comes to choosing what to eat, we live in a uniquely challenging era. Never before have humans known more about nutrition and how to eat for optimal health, and yet we’ve never been more surrounded by distractions and temptations that derail us from making healthy choices.

Some people might be able to decide “I’m going to eat healthier!” and do so without any problem, but those folks are unicorns. Most of us know what we should do, but need a little help making it happen—like some simple hacks, tips and tricks for avoiding pitfalls on the road to healthier eating.

While recognizing that what works for one person may not work for another, here are some helpful habits and approaches that might help you move closer to your healthy eating goals.

man pulling chip out of a chip bagOur mouths loves chips. Our bodies not so much.Photo by Bermix Studio on Unsplash

Goal: Snack on less junk food

Tip: Focus your willpower on the grocery store, not your home

Willpower is a limited commodity for most of us, and it is no match for a bag of potato chips sitting on top of the fridge. It’s just a fact. Channeling your willpower at the grocery store can save you from having to fight that battle at home. If you don’t bring chips into your house in the first place, you’ll find it a lot easier to reach for something healthier.

The key to successful shopping trips is to always go to the store with a specific list and a full stomach—you’ll feel much less tempted to buy the junky snack foods if you’re already satiated. Also, finding healthier alternatives that will still satisfy your cravings for salty or crunchy, or fatty foods helps. Sugar snap peas have a surprisingly satisfying crunch, apples and nut butter hit that sweet-and-salty craving, etc.

slice of cakeYou can eat well without giving up sweets completely.Photo by Caitlyn de Wild on Unsplash

Goal: Eat less sugar

Tip: Instead of “deprive,” think “delay” or “decrease and delight”

Sugar is a tricky one. Some people find it easier to cut out added sugars altogether, but that can create an all-or-nothing mindset that all too often results in “all.” Eating more whole foods and less processed foods can help us cut out a lot of ancillary sugar, but we still live in a world with birthday cakes and dessert courses.

One approach to dessert temptation is to delay instead of deprive. Tell yourself you can have any sweet you want…tomorrow. This mental trick flips the “I’ll just indulge today and start eating healthier tomorrow” idea on its head. It’s a lot easier to resist something you know you can have tomorrow than to say no to something you think you’ll never get to have again.

Another approach when you really want to enjoy a dessert at that moment is to decrease the amount and really truly savor it. Eat each bite slowly, delighting in the full taste and satisfaction of it. As soon as that delight starts to diminish, even a little, stop eating. You’ve gotten what you wanted out of it. You don’t have to finish it. (After all, you can always have more tomorrow!)

colorful fresh food on a plateA naturally colorful meal is a healthy meal.Photo by Anna Pelzer on Unsplash

Goal: Eat healthier meals

Tip: Focus on fresh foods and plan meals ahead of time

Meal planning is easier than ever before. The internet is filled with countless tools—everything from recipes to shopping lists to meal planning apps—and it’s as awesome as it is overwhelming.

Planning ahead takes the guesswork and decision fatigue out of cooking, preventing the inevitable “Let’s just order a pizza.” You can have a repeating 3-week or 4-week menu of your favorite meals so you never have to think about what you’re going to eat, or you can meal plan once a week to try new recipes and keep things fresh.

It might help to designate one day a week to “shop and chop”—getting and prepping the ingredients for the week’s meals so they’re ready to go in your fridge or freezer.

woman holding blueberries in her handsOrganic foods are better for the Earth and for us.Photo by andrew welch on Unsplash

Goal: Eat more organic/humanely raised food

Tip: Utilize the “dirty dozen” and “clean 15” lists to prioritize

Many people choose organic because they want to avoid pesticides and other potentially harmful chemicals. Organic food is also better for the planet, and according to the Mayo Clinic, studies have shown that organic produce is higher in certain nutrients.

Most people don’t buy everything organic, but there are some foods that should take priority over others. Each year, researchers from the Environmental Working Group (EWG) analyze thousands of samples of dozens of fruits and vegetables. From this data, they create a list of the “Dirty Dozen” and “Clean 15” fruits and vegetables, indicating what produce has the most and least pesticide residue. These lists give people a good place to start focusing their transition to more organic foods.

To make organic eating even simpler, you can shop O Organics® at your local Albertsons or Safeway stores. The O Organics brand offers a wide range of affordable USDA-certified organic products in every aisle. If you’re focusing on fresh foods, O Organics produce is always grown without synthetic pesticides, is farmed to conserve biodiversity, and is always non-GMO. All animal-based O Organics products are certified humane as well. Even switching part of your grocery list to organic can make a positive impact on the planet and the people you feed.

Healthy eating habits don’t have to be all or nothing, and they don’t have to be complicated. A few simple mindset changes at home and habit changes at the grocery store can make a big difference.

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via UNSW

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