The Hope Village Garden Club reflects a sustainable, community-based model of programming built through phased investment, cross-sector partnership, and ongoing community input. At its core, the initiative demonstrates the importance of listening to community needs and responding through collaborative, service-driven programming that can adapt and grow over time.
Sara Elnakib, PhD, MPH, RDN, of Rutgers Cooperative Extension, co-author of NJ Roadmap for Food System Resilience, and New Jersey Food Democracy Collaborative Network Facilitation Team Member, partnered with the NJFDC to apply for a REACH grant to address this need. They set out to co-develop a solution that would improve access to critical food system data by building a tool that reflects real-world needs—focusing on the data points most relevant to day-to-day operations, resource allocation, and data-driven decision-making.
They are part of a Rutgers program called Scarlet Hope for Autism: The Road to Excellence in Education (SHARE) in which the university partners with two of its host communities in New Brunswick and Newark to help those districts better serve their special-needs population.
As part of a four-month experiment in Newark, mothers of preschoolers were given cameras to snap pictures of food that is readily available at supermarkets and restaurants in their community. Of the 814 photographs submitted, the vast majority showed how prevalent ultra-processed foods are on the shelves of stores and menus of restaurant chains.
Through funding from Rutgers Equity Alliance for Community Health (REACH), Rutgers speech-language pathology faculty and Newark school specialists have been working together since 2023 to improve how students are evaluated for speech and language disorders. The initiative aims to ensure children from linguistically diverse backgrounds receive appropriate support without being incorrectly labeled with a disability.
“What we knew when we started this work with REACH,” said Dr. Bagchi, associate professor of professional practice, Rutgers Business School, “is that there’s an overwhelming need for mental health services, but that barriers exist to accessing care, which can be particularly strong in underserved communities where social determinants of health are also a factor.”