Table 2.

Main Themes From Qualitative Interviews With Community Members and Community Garden Stakeholders in New Orleans, Louisiana, Regarding Enablers and Barriers of Community Garden Use (n = 20).

Identified Theme	Theme Explanation	Number of Participants Discussing Theme	Example Quotes
Skill-building	Interviewees’ discussion of informal instances of skill building that contribute to their interest in garden participation	4 out of 4 garden users	“The more I learn, the more of my interest will grow. And the more I keep my hands involved in it, the more I’ll learn, the more I can teach my children” – Community member, nonuser
		8 out of 10 garden non-users	“It’s nice because a lot of people from the neighborhood come... And so you can learn things about gardening while you’re there. And it’s just nice to meet different people. And everybody kind of comes together in the neighborhood.” – Community member, garden user
		4 out of 6 stakeholders	“Yeah, having more families involved, just bringing back a culture or a history of gardening.... When they see stuff growing, and they can taste stuff, and how much better it tastes. And they can learn like oh it grows on a tree, and it doesn’t just come from the grocery store.” – Stakeholder
Availability of information	Interviewees’ discussion of how the availability of information about garden activities affects their ability and likelihood of participation	3 out of 4 garden users	“I mean, I’ve found most of them [community gardens] just by riding my bike by and going,
		7 out of 10 garden non-users	‘Hey, what’s that over there?’ and I go up to it...I might get involved if there was a contact email or something. Yeah. But there isn’t. So I just have no idea.” – Community member, nonuser
		5 out of 6 stakeholders	“We always make sure that our nearby neighbors know about anything that’s pretty much going on. If it’s just something for the gardeners, I mean, we have a website, we put our information so people know of classes that are being offered... So, they do utilize Facebook and email systems and to send out that information of programs and each time, most times, it’s always fills up to capacity.” – Community member, garden user. “So perfection in this case does not exist, right. So I think the thing that will help us to reach our target will be to be to have more staff to do some more outreach and, and to talk about our garden” – Stakeholder
Time	Interviewees’ discussion on how time limits their ability to participate in community gardens	3 out of 4 garden users	“...There is actually a community garden three blocks from my house and it is gorgeous. I’ve always wanted to volunteer there, but I never made the time.” – Community member, nonuser
		7 out of 10 garden non-users	“A lot of people want to garden, they think they want to garden. But when they realize how much time and effort and dedication it takes... A Lot of them stop...” – Community member, garden user
		2 out of 6 stakeholders	“I think the big thing it would require is that more people had more time in their life which is a like a political and economic critique for sure. Right like people can’t engage with community gardening if they so choose, because a lot of people don’t have that literal space in their life, cause they’re working,... I Guess I’m just saying it requires like an overhaul of the American like work week.” – Stakeholder
Social engagement	Interviewees’ discussion of norms, values and practices that characterize engagement within and with community gardens as well as interpersonal relationships as a factor of participation	4 out of 4 garden users	“Maybe it’s the community part that people would really want to be a part of, not so much the gardening... I Mean gardening together is better than gardening alone” – Community member, nonuser
		10 out of 10 garden non-users	“Just that it is respectful of everybody, everybody, we don’t make decisions at that garden. It’s not a hierarchy or anything like that, it’s... Everybody makes the decision. Every member of the garden is invited to participate in meetings before any decisions are made. And we all vote and come together collectively to decide what’s going to happen next.” – Community member, garden user
		6 out of 6 stakeholders	“... one of my really strongly held beliefs about a community garden is that they do... they require someone who has an extra level of dedication to make them tick and I think that’s like counter to how a lot of people conceive of community gardens, they’re like this should just be like super easy and people should come in, and I think that’s the point of like food, like food being inaccessible and expensive under capitalism is that, like we don’t pay-we don’t appropriately value labor, we don’t appropriately value the people who are moving our food systems forward. And to keep a community garden healthy and strong, we need to pay for the labor of organizing community gardens.” – Stakeholder
Access to fresh foods	Interviewees’ discussion of the availability of fresh produce as a factor related to participating in/purchasing from community gardens	4 out of 4 garden users	“I mean, making, I mean, it totally makes sense to, you know, use land around us to provide food within neighborhoods, especially for people who don’t have access to healthy food, educating the youth, programs for youth and seniors to get access to healthy, you know them and their families to get access to healthy food.” - community member, garden nonuser
		10 out of 10 garden non-users	“You know, especially because there’s a lot of like food desert areas in new Orleans. And there’s a lot of people who don’t have cars in new Orleans too including myself, like, you know, and you don’t really have access to big grocery stores that are close. I mean, if you had a garden in your neighborhood, it might increase the amount of like, vegetables and stuff that you’d eat. Because they’re right there. You know, you have them in hand.” - community member, garden user
		5 out of 6 stakeholders	“I don’t think small lot gardening is effective for meeting people’s food security needs in my experience at all. I Think that backyard gardening has a lot of interesting, um, applications but in terms of on a on a lot or a couple of small lots, producing enough food to impact food insecurity is that we’re talking about? No, is the answer to that as far as I’m concerned.” - stakeholder