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Americans are reviving shared vegetable gardens to restore citizen relationships and buffer their communities against high food prices and job layoffs.

The national movement has taken root in Greensboro, where both government and private organizations are working together to increase the number of community gardens.

One group led by city employees is meeting to determine how to meet increasing local demand without budgeted funds.

"I don't think we have the resources to provide financial support during this time," said Mayor Yvonne Johnson, a garden supporter. "But we do have land we are not using."

The group is hoping to take advantage of public-private partnerships with the N.C. Cooperative Extension and other organizations to share resources. The group plans to meet again in early February.

Community gardening has become a method for mitigating a myriad of economic, social, health and environmental problems. Groups use it to provide fresh vegetables to the poor, reconnect residents with their neigbhors, reduce dependence on fossil-fuels and large-scale agriculture, and rebuild damaged soils and habitats.

These gardens can serve different purposes - to supplement cafeteria lunches for schoolchildren, feed company employees, or stock pantries and refrigerators at soup kitchens for the homeless.

Most of the produce from existing gardens in Guilford County benefit the families of plotholders, but Julie Lapham said she would like to see more people garden for the benefit of the poor and homeless.

"We might have a whole bunch of people out of work for a long time," she said. "What are we going to do with them? We have a hard enough time dealing with our homeless right now."

Lapham, of Greensboro, said grassroots initiatives could be as simple as a homeowner offering up tilled backyard space to neighbors, something that has happened at churches like Presbyterian Church of the Covenant.

In fact, the Rural Life Committee of the North Carolina Council of Churches works with faith organizations to support local farms and relieve hunger in the state. It will hold three conferences in Garysburg, Boone and Charlotte in February. One participating group is the Piedmont Interfaith Network of Gardens, which is made of church-based community gardens in central North Carolina.

Lapham had no answers for how food would be distributed or prepared by centers used to canned or boxed goods, but she said she didn't think this type of community support requires much formal oversight.

"I think people are just going to respond in whatever way they are able, whether they are growing it for themselves or it's a giveaway to the community."