Monday 19 January 2015

No Room for Community in Toronto's new Community Garden Program

Hello Gardening Folks,

It's been some time since you've had an update on what's going on.  Today, I'm here to tell you this:

We have formally terminated our involvement with the garden project at the defunct Humberside Bowling Green.


As most of you know, we have been volunteering on this project for over five years.  We developed a community driven plan to create a garden that involved local schools, summer volunteer student groups, local family owned  green businesses, and community members.  We had a successful fundraising team that worked hard to secure a $24,000 grant from Live Green Toronto.  We were donated a ton of organic seeds from the Sweet Potato.  We were good to go.

But then something surprising happened.

Toronto Park's decided that it was time to standardize all community gardens across the city.  They hijacked our garden plans and met with Live Green Toronto, without us, and rewrote our grant budget to pay themselves.

We were shocked.  Could they even do that?

It turns out they could.  Because Live Green Toronto is the city, so they can rewrite our grant as they see fit and as they are told by the Park's department.

What we were left with was a plan that sharply contrasted what the community wanted and we were completely left out of the process.  We were told that the students, volunteers, and community members could no longer be a part of creating the garden and the work was to be contracted out by the city.

Not only did this cut out the community, it raised the cost of the project to ridiculous proportions.

Since we legally had to approve/sign off on the grant money (even though it would go directly back to the city) AND we were expected to submit ongoing grant reports (on volunteer time) we decided to reject the grant and terminate our support of the garden project.

We are now focused on seeking new land for a community garden that is not owned by the City.


I'd personally like to thank all of the enthusiastic people who had committed their time and energy for free to this project.  Especially, I'd like to thank all of the students at Western Tech who were our biggest supporters and whom have already made us wooden chairs, chess tables, bird feeders, and garden signs.  And a special thank you to Arlene and Mark from BUFCO.  Your help throughout this project was incredible and your products are fantastic.

It's a sad day for community gardens across the city, when standardization and liability rule over community driven projects, creativity, and strong desire to be involved in our own neighbourhoods.

Joelle Kennedy
Garden Coordinator




Yes, it is a sad day after all the visioning and hard work that was put into meetings, grant proposals, etc.

I can't be part of a garden that isn't community based and doesn't respect the plans and wishes of the garden community.

I hope another site may be found within the ward to continue a vision that is deeply rooted in sharing the bounty of the earth.

Thank you to all the members that showed up and helped support this initiative.

I'd like to thank Joelle for all the selfless hours she devoted into planning this Garden and writing the grant that had been accepted yet has been changed so drastically it doesn't reflect the original grant.

We the people are the City however when "City" (that separates themselves from us) starts to dictate what is allowed and what isn't and doesn't respect the planning and hard work of the volunteers that created the vision, Yes, it is a Sad day!

So for these reasons I step aside from this project also.

Joanne Deane
Assistant Garden Coordinator