Community Nutrition Project at SHSS Dedicates Garden at Senior Day Care Center in Fort Lauderdale

(Photo) Ralph Tapia, an NSU student and CNAP Board Member, assists a participant at the garden dedication.	(Photo) CNAP Board Members Ralph Tapia, Melissa Tapia, Thedious West, Jean Pritchard, Antirra West and Dr. Fran Fassman of SHSS.

The Community Nutrition Awareness Project (CNAP) at the Graduate School of Humanities and Social Sciences of Nova Southeastern University dedicated a garden to the Noble A. McArtor Adult Day Care Center on Feb. 21.

The garden is the first of its kind to have specially designed, wheel-chair accessible raised containers. NSU student Ralph Tapia, along with other members of the CNAP Garden Board, designed and built the unique containers to make gardening easier and more enjoyable for the senior citizens at the Center.

Seniors at the McArtor Center, located in Fort Lauderdale, can enjoy the new garden during the Center’s operating hours, Monday through Friday, from 8:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. The McArtor Center provides a structured day of activities to physically-dependent seniors and persons with dementia. The center will use the garden for therapeutic recreation.

CNAP is committed to providing gardens to address community unity and food needs, and is currently working to develop ten more gardens at various locations throughout Broward County, including the Women in Distress and Broward House.

CNAP offers a combination of practical, educational, and community development programs each designed to contribute to an overall increase in healthy and sustainable communities of people able to improve their own nutritional self-reliance in order to meet the nutritional needs within their communities.

Those involved in the project are also been planting the seed of nutritional health throughout Fort Lauderdale in ways other than the construction of gardens. The project’s mascot – “Snappy the CNAP Orange” - has made visits to local libraries and schools to speak with children about the importance of proper eating habits. Additionally, Fran Fassman, Psy.D, Associate Principle Investigator for CNAP, has spoken to the Council of Civic Associations about the benefits CNAP will have on the surrounding community.