Community gardens taking root – Richmond, BC

Mary Gazetas of the Richmond Fruit Tree Sharing Program stands at Terra Nova rural park, where farming classes are held. She says there’s ‘a renaissance’ of people wanting to connect with the land again.
Photograph by: Arlen Redekop, PNG, Vancouver Sun

Budding farmers can learn from the ground up at Richmond farm school

By Kelly Sinoski,
Vancouver Sun
April 14, 2010

Excerpt:

Most of its farmland was paved over decades ago, but the City of Richmond has found new ground to support a growing resurgence of the community gardener.

The city this week finalized a three-year agreement with the Richmond Food Security Society, giving the group a one-time $15,000 grant to run the city’s four community gardens as well as the $8,000 it collects annually from the gardens.

“By getting the food security society to run it we’re putting it in the hands of the community, which is really keen to make it work, rather than a city staff person,” said Richmond Coun. Harold Steves.

The Richmond Food Security Society, which is aiming to raise food awareness in the city, has long pushed residents to become more self-reliant rather than depending on produce from the U.S. and overseas.

It is also involved in running a new “farm school” in the community with Kwantlen University’s Institute for Sustainable Horticulture, which offers budding farmers a chance to learn the trade from the ground up.

Once they’ve learned the basics of farming, processing, marketing, and sales, the students will have access to “incubator” farm land — up to one acre for three years — to start farming. The city has about 186 acres that could be leased for the project. “There’s a huge wave of everyone wanting to grow food,” said Richmond resident Mary Gazetas, who sits on the board of the Richmond Fruit Tree Sharing Program at Terra Nova rural park where the farming classes are held. “It’s very exciting … [this] is a very good experience for people who want to start growing food commercially.”

Richmond’s latest decision to support community gardening comes at a time when Metro Vancouver is about to debate a regional food network strategy.

See the rest of the story here.