 In a state as forested as Alabama, the last thing you expect to see is a desert. But more than two million of our residents actually live in a desert, a food desert, where fresh healthy food is hard to come by and food insecurity is a part of life. The Alabama Cooperative Extension System is working to change that, one community garden at a time. Join us as we discover more. What started during the pandemic as a way for local gardeners to grow and share produce during uncertain times has become a model solution for tackling higher food prices. Alabama Extension Agent Bethany O'Rear created the Grow More Give More program nearly four years ago and says she sees it as a way to battle food insecurity issues among an at-risk group. Senior citizens, those are the ones that are most at risk, prices have increased, they can't afford fresh produce. And so we wanted a way to provide these basically portable pop-up gardens in food desert areas to this vulnerable population. Grow More Give More has installed nearly a dozen small-scale raised-bed gardens at senior centers across the state with more planned this year. They love to garden and they haven't been quite, you know, able to plant gardens. And so this is just something to keep them involved and for them to raise them some Grammar worked with Bibb County Extension Coordinator Michelle Giddens, who saw a need in the Woodstock community and collaborated with other Extension experts. We have a lot of programs around that are built kind of around that that you can extend out into to help people make their lives better. You know, something that they may never have thought they could do before you can do. For more information about Grow More Give More or to learn more about making your backyard garden productive, log on to aces.edu or visit your local Extension office.