I met some people from the Edible Garden Project at my farmer’s market the other day. One part GWA Plant-a-Row-for-the-Hungry, one part local activism, the Edible Garden Project is based on Vancouver’s North Shore, but has potential for duplication anywhere.
The Edible Garden Project seeks out unused garden space both on private and public property, striving to create a network between homeowners with gardens who want to donate a portion of their harvest, people who have under or unused garden space and would like to cultivate this land for growing food, and volunteers who want to contribute to the growing, sharing, and learning around locally produced food. The fresh local produce that comes out of these gardens is then brought to organizations, like the Harvest Project, that serve community members who require it the most.
It seems that, more and more, issues surrounding food security – such as adequate access to fresh fruit and vegetables for all community members – are being talked about in the public sphere. It may not be making the evening news, but I think the issue is slowing making it into the minds of people who can create change. What this project shows is that those people are you and me. Simply by volunteering some of your garden space – or volunteering to cultivate someone else’s – we can make a difference.
Wow. That was unusually Pollyanna-esque for me. Must be the marriage hormones flying around.
Mary Hunt says
I wandered into this post today… I do volunteer work with a teen mom shelter – trying to teach them how to grow their own and then how to cook and eat those vegetables. The shelter is located in Orange County, Ca and I am stunned (midwest girl that I am) at how ignorant these California girls are of even the most common sense things, i.e. asking what a tree with bring orange fruit is. (I’m not kidding)
I tell them that those with money eat fresh food, and you can live like them, if you grow your own.