Resumen
Urban gardens are a key component of traditional urban and peri-urban landscapes in major European cities (Sargolini, 2013, Bell et al., 2016, Lohrberg
et al., 2016), providing a variety of ecosystem and social services (Langemeyer et al., 2016). Urban agriculture has played a key role in local food
production and consumption systems (Barthel & Isendahl, 2013; Barthel et al., 2015; Church et al., 2015; Partalidou & Anthopoulou, 2017). Participation
in urban gardens has consistently been shown to have positive impacts on eating habits, access to healthy food, and the food beliefs, knowledge and
attitudes of participants and their families (Garcia et al., 2018; Tharrey & Darmon, 2021). The positive impact of participation in urban gardens on other
aspects not directly linked to dietary patterns, such as mental and social health (Tharrey & Darmon, 2021), frequency of physical activity (Van den Bert
et al., 2010) or the development of skills and knowledge outcomes of youth (Laycock & Robinson, 2018) has also been reported.
Thus, U-GARDENs main aim is the promotion of urban gardens and similar experiences of green food production as a key component of a strategic
framework for sustainable urban development in Europe.
