David and Elizabeth Harrison

Alton Park resident David Harrison, 46, remembers growing up in rural Kensington, Ga., and coming home from school to plant corn, squash, sweet peas and tomatoes on the family farm.

That life sometimes feels a world away from city living and a lifestyle unfamiliar to many of his neighborhood's children, he said.

Mr. Harrison is reconnecting with his boyhood days by volunteering at a newly planted community garden at Calvin Donaldson Environmental Science Academy. He and dozens of local children and adults helped plant and cultivate herbs and vegetables ranging from basil and chocolate mint to purple squash and tomatoes in a small community garden behind the school.

"We're mainly just showing a lot of young folks these days how easy it is to take time out to grow your own food," he said. "If you give them some seeds, let them plant it and watch it grow, they can pass that on themselves to their kids."

The Calvin Donaldson garden is one of nine community gardens scattered around churches and schools throughout Chattanooga, funded in part by $1,000 grants from the Junior League of Chattanooga.

On Tuesday local health advocates, politicians and community members gathered at Calvin Donaldson to honor the grant recipients.

The community gardens project is part of an effort to connect children and families living in low-income urban neighborhoods to the origins of the foods they consume, said John Bilderback, program director for Step ONE, a program of the Chattanooga-Hamilton County Health Department focused on lowering obesity rates.

"We want kids to eat more fruits and vegetables, and this is a great way to go about it," Mr. Bilderback said. "Our goal is to get kids out and involved in appreciating where food comes from."

The benefits are many, including the physical exercise that comes from working in a garden, the beautification of low-income neighborhoods and the introduction of healthy foods to children, he said.

Especially for children living in cities, there can be a disconnect between the foods purchased at a store and the natural origins of fresh produce, said Alton Park resident Christine Barnes, 68. She is one of a number of volunteers who work in the Calvin Donaldson garden regularly, earning a share of fresh produce when harvest time comes.

"They don't even know that a tomato comes off of a plant. They think it comes from the grocery store," she said. In the garden, the children's "eyes just lit up. Some kids don't have somebody to show them that."